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Looking Skyward 



and 



The Earth 



Illustrated. 



By 

ISAAC NEWTON SNYDER 

B, S... 1871 

A. M., 1886 

• Miami University 



(lOtl's poet is silence! His song is unspoken. 

And yet so profound, so loud, and so far. 
It fills yon. it thrills you with measures unbroken. 

And as soft, and as fair, and as far as a star. 

— Joaquin Miller 



^ i i 

> ^ >' 



1911. 



Copyrighted 

by 

Isaac Newton Snyder 

1911 



PRESS OF 

EXPRESS PRINTING CO. 

LIBERTY. IND. 



CI. A 2 8 3 3 9 7 



DEDICATED 

To the Memory of My Mother 
Sarah Witt Snyder. 



ASTRONOMY. 

The contemplation of Celestial things will make a man 
both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when 
he descends to human affairs. 

— Cicero. 



Beautiful stars! 
What are ye? There is in my heart of hearts 
A fount that heaves beneath you like the deep 
Beneath the glories of the midnight moon! 

* * * * # * * 

'Mid the unfathomed vastness of the sky! 

— George D. Prentice. 



Table gf Contents 

Preface ----------------- 15 

Chapter I — Who Should and What Does Look Skyward 

and Introductory --------- 17 

Chapter II — Origin of the Solar System ------ 22 

Chapter III— The Sun ------------ 31 

Chapter IV— The Earth-World --------- 42 

Chapter V — The Moon ------------ 57 

Chapter VI — Venus ------------- 70 

Chapter A II — Some Hindrances in the Study of Astronomy 79 

Chapter VIII — The Importance of the Opera Glass rnd 

Small Telescope in Astronomy - - - - 84 

Chapter IX— The Asteroids ---------- 87 

Chapter X — The Weather and Astronomy ------ 98 

Chapter XI— Comets ------------- 108 

Chapter XII— Halley's Comet ---------- 113 

Chapter XIII — The Xumber of Stars and the Stupendous- 

ness of the Universe --------127 

Chapter XIV— A Few Problems --------- 132 

Chapter XV — Waste Space and Infinity, by Hon. W. L. 

Barnes. Charlestown. Ind. ------ 135 

Chapter AVI — Are All Non-luminous Bodies the Grave- 
yards of the Sky? Yes. - 137 

Chapter XVII — The Bible and Astronomy, by Rev. 

Frederick Stovenonr -------- 141 

Ode to Memory --------------- 148 



AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. 

"The Earth's Beginning."— Ball. 
"Other Worlds Than Ours."— Proctor. 
"Chats On Astronomy." — Hollis. 
"Astronomy Yon Can Understand." — Kenney. 
"Astronomical Atlas." — Heath. 
"Evolution of Worlds." — Lowell. 
"Sketches of Creation."— Winchell. 
"Astronomy for Amateurs." — Flammarion. 
And others. 



List gf Illustrations 

Photographs of Hallev's Comet ------ Frontispiece 

Total Eclipse of Sun — photograph ----.... \ § 

The Great Xebula in Orion — -Primordial — photograph - 22 

The Great Xebula of Andromeda — photograph -------- 25 

The Great Spiral Xebula — drawing -------- 26 

Typical Sun Spot — drawing ---------- 28 

The Sun — photograph ------------ 32 

Total Eclipse of the Sun — photograph ------- 35 

Comparative sizes of the Earth and the Sun — drawing - 36 

Sections of Sun, showing progression of Sun Spots — photo- 
graph -------.. 37 

Comparative sizes of Earth and Moon — drawing ... 42 

The Moon — photograph ------------ 57 

Drawing showing process of eclipse of Moon 64 

Venus as an Evening Star — drawing ------- 70 

Venus at Inferior and Superior Conjunction — -drawing - 73 

The Solar System — drawing ---------- §8 

Saturn — drawing -------------- 99 

Jupiter, showing two Moons in transit — drawing - - - 101 

Drawing showing three kinds of orbits of Comets - - - 108 

Coggi's Comet — drawing 110 

Drawing showing path of Hallev's Comet ------ 114 

Street Scene in Liberty, showing snow 24 inches deep - 122 

Snow storm. April 19, 1910 - - - - - - - - - - 124 

Path of Hallev's Comet — drawing 135 

Rev. Frederick Stovenour. A.M.. D.D. — photograph - - 140 



. PREFACE. 

The original inception of* this short treatise came 
from the published request of Dr. Fredrick Campbell, 
in which he asked people (especially the youth), 
who lived in the early part of the year 1910, to make 
drawings of and write descriptions of Halley's comet 
during its perihelion journey in 1909 and 1910, when 
it became so conspicuous to the naked eye ; and that 
these mementos be placed so that they could be 
cared for and handed down to the generation which 
lives when the great comet comes back again. 75 
vears hence, so that better records can be had to aid 
in solving many problems concerning this celestial 
wanderer, the records of past visits being so im- 
perfect. Then the thought came to me — and urged 
by the Rev. Fredrick Stovenour and other friends — 
to prepare, in book form, a running description of 
some of the salient points in general astronomy, par- 
ticularly the connection of the weather with astron- 
omy, and I have prepared a chapter on that subect 
which I hope will be of some interest to mankind in 
calling attention to this most important of sciences 
and which probably is least known to the masses of 

the common people. 

15 



Though technicalities are absolutely necessary in 
the fuller understanding of astronomy, I have 
avoided the more intricate parts and endeavored to 
frame my explanations in ordinary language so that 
all classes of readers can understand. 

So to reach the masses is my chief object, — my 
apology — and to be of aid even to the mathematician 
or professor, not an impediment. Though my helps, 
in proper instruments, etc., etc., are very limited, 
pains have been taken to avoid errors. Yet they will 
be found. Perfection is not attained at a bound. 

Another very important object of this work is to 
prove by substantial testimony that the Bible and 
the revelations of astronomy do not conflict and the 
subject has been ablv handled by the Rev. Fredrick 
Stovenour in a chapter entitled "The Bible and 
Astronomy.' To this I invite the especial attention 
of the clergy. 

Finally, in this year and age of Anno Domini 1910- 
1911, while aviation and wireless telegraphy are at- 
tracting so much attention, may my feeble efforts be 
the means of securing a share of respect and care 
for the beauties and sublimities to be found, out and 
beyond the confines of this puny little atom which 
we so proudly and boastfully call The Big World ! 

I. N. S. 

December, 1910. Liberty, Indiana. 

16 



CHAPTER I. 

WHO SHOULD, AND WHAT DOES LOOK SKYWARD. 
AND INTRODUCTORY. 

[Note. — In explaining the purport of this chapter it niiglu 
be well to say that the word astronomy comes from the Latin 
word astronomia — the science which treats of the heavenly 
bodies. And the word meteorology, from Trench meteorologie, 
and means the science which treats of the atmosphere of the 
earth. 

More and more each year the belief is growing that the 
heavenly bodies in their movements and attractive power 
govern weather conditions here below; hence the words as- 
tronomy and meteorology will be used synonymously in this 
chapter.] 

Every condition of man should look skyward. 

The minister and the priest should look skyward, 
because in delivering their sermons they invariably 
point upward toward what is called the abiding 
place of the soul. Their places of worship are cus- 
tomarily in structures whose lofty and often mag- 
nificent spires invariably point skyward. 

The doctor and undertaker should look skyward 
as the sudden and frequent changes in the weather 
increase their employment immensely. 

The street loafer should look skyward as the ab- 
sence of clouds on a wintry day gives him an oppor- 
tunity to bask in the warm sunshine. 

The politician and statesman should study sky 

17 



LOOKIXd SKYWARD. 




Total Eclipse of the Sun, showing fixed star shining through 

a prominence. 

conditions as the good crops of their farmer constit- 
uents bring happiness and contentment among all 
classes of people and a prolongation of their official 
capasity, and bad crops vice versa. 

Weary Willy, the tramp should study planetary 
motions and moon changes and cloud conditions. He 
is never in his best spirits except when a cold stormy 

day is on. Then in his tattered clothing and unkempt 

18 



WHO SHOULD. AXD WHAT DOES LOOK SKYWARD. 

hair he can attract the most attention and sympathy 
when he presents himself at the home of the farmer. 
Then he can reap a comfortable living off of those 
who work, and is happy. 

Nature lovers look skyward, Seated in the gloam 
ing they look up to the starry constellations and 
meditate. As a storm approaches they watch the 
lightning flashes and listen to the thunders roar, 
deeply interested in the proceedings above. 

The poet and novelist are deeply concerned in 
skyward proceedings and often the most thrilling 
productions of their pens are about the grand scenery 
above, the starry vault of the sky and the clashings 
of the elements in the atmosphere below. 

The meteorologist should look skyward out and 
beyond the earth's atmosphere and study and trace 
the prime causes which bring about the changes in 
the air currents which gives us the fair and foul 
weather, the gentle zephyr and the dreaded cyclone 
and hurricane. 

The farmer should look skyward as he feeds all. 
and the very life of his crops in the way of light, heat 
and the invigorating rains come from above. 

Go to the lower animals and what do you find . 
All domestic animals particularly the horse appear 

in 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

to foretell changes in the weather. The writer has 
personal knowledge of this fact. An approaching 
storm excites them and a beautiful sunshiny day 
keeps them quiet, making them, in a way, sun-wor- 
shipers, proving that they too look skyward. 

Birds are sky-worshipers. In a high degree, those 
that sing. Perched on a high tree at the close of 
a sunlit day, and with beak pointed upward the com- 
mon robin is often seen to send forth shrill notes 
of seeming joy — a prayer of thanks to the maker 
of the universe — until it becomes quite dark, and 
in the morning long before sunrise, and until that 
luminary is up, the same beautiful scene is repeated. 
In stormy and threatening weather they are in seem- 
ing distress. 

Flowers look skyward invariably. The day bloom- 
ing ones follow the sun and many have the varied 
colors shown in the spectroscope. Some are most 
beautiful. The night blooming ones open out to the 
stars, and though those lovely sunlight colors are 
wanting, even the absence of the sunlight does not 
keep them from looking skyward. 

It is true of the common and colorless species as 
well as the most beautiful. In summer time it is a 
very ordinary thing to see whole fields of the in- 

20 



WHO SHOULD. AXD WHAT DOES LOOK SKYWARD. 

elegant rag-weed follow the sun from sunrise to sun- 
set with their countless blossoms fully expanded. 
The gigantic sunflower with its brilliant colors does 
likewise. 

Whether growing in the humblest cottage of the 
poor, or gracing the boudoir, bay-window or ele- 
gant drawing room of the refined and wealthy, they 
seek the sunlight, and look upward. Place them 
away in a dark room or recess, give them every 
other necessity such as proper heat, water and air, 
their colors will fade and they will eventually droop 
and die — deprived of the necessary privilege of look- 
ing skyward. 

Fit emblems they are when displayed as memor- 
ials to our departed friends. We know of nothing 
more sympathetic or satisfying to our grief than 
to embellish their biers with those beautiful tokens 
placed there in memory of the spirits of the de- 
parted which have previously flown skyward. 



•z\ 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 




Photo by C. H. Gingrich. 
The Great Nebula in Orion — Primordial. 



CHAPTER II. 

ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
Let the reader watch for a night which is as clear 

and free of clouds and mist and other impurities 

as is possible when there is no moon and the twilight 

and the zodiacal light have gone. At first look 

overhead with bare eyes among the fixed stars, and 

numerous little stars will be discovered which could 

22 



ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 

not be seen on an ordinary night. Keep looking, 
presently yon will see a spot of light color which you 
can hardly make out. Now, having taken the pre- 
vious thought to bring an opera glass along, apply 
the glass to the spot and behold a group of tiny 
stars is revealed to you, where the spot of light was 
found bv vour naked eve. Count them. You will find 
fifty and possibly one hundred or even more. Now 
look at other points with the glass. You will be re- 
warded by finding several star clusters — some most 
beautiful and containing stars different in magni- 
tudes and colors and tints. Continue looking with 
the opera glass and presently you will find a patch 
of light which your opera does not convert into 
stars, now add more magnifying power by getting a 
small telescope, say one of two or three inch object 
glass and with a power of fifty or one hundred dia- 
meters, and behold this spot also is dissolved into 
little stars more numerous than those which Avere 
previously found with the opera, the same variety 
of colors also will be found among them. Now be 
patient and persevere with the small telescope, pres- 
ently you will find a spot of light which the small 
telescope fails to dissolve into stars. Employ more 
magnifying power on the object, still no stars ap- 

23 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

pear. Get a larger and more powerful telescope. 
Still the whitish patch of light remains undissolved 
into stars with the possible exception of a few scat- 
tering ones. But the only change in the appearance 
of the spot is that it broadens and extends over a 
greater scope of the field of the telescope. Now you 
have found a true nebula, or what is sometimes called 
""star dust'' a substance in the sky which no tele- 
scope however powerful can change into stars. 
Though they are sometimes named from their ap- 
pearances, such as annular, cometary, stellar and 
spiral, the kind we wish to discuss in this paper are 
those of the spiral form. 

Dr. Robert Ball, of Cambridge Observatory, states 
that the nebular theory of the origin of the solar 
system was first advocated by Immanuel Kant, a 
famous German Philosopher, born in 1724, and died 
in 1804. This same belief was promulgated by Lap- 
lace, Herschel and others. Hale says "the greatest 
astronomers of the nineteenth century have given the 
weight of their approval to the nebular hypothesis, 
and calculations as to the age of the sun have been 
based upon it.' In Dr. Ball's "Earth's Beginning' 
he says that "a nebula gradually tends to the form 
of a flat plane and this is the first point to be noticed 

•24 



ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 




Photo by C. H. Gingrich. 
The Great Spiral Nebula ct Audromeda. as we see it through 
a small telescope. See page 25. 

in the formation of a spiral nebula/ The next 
stage is contraction. The next period a spiral is 
started on the principal of the laws of dynamics.' 
Continuing he says, "no longer, therefore need we 
feel any hesitation in believing the assurance of 
Prof. Keelor that out of 120 thousand known 
nebulae at least one-half must be spirals." It. there- 

2.-) 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

. fore, is believed that those of the nebulae which are 
not spirals are in the primeval stage, and the spirals 
are the third stage of the formation of a solar 
system. Dr. Hale in speaking of the spirals says, 
"Of all the objects in the heavens they most strong- 
ly suggest the operation of some process of devel- 

Ursa Major. 



y 



/ 

i 
i 

/ 
/ 



« -# 

Th t J<rs!r f><rr S«n. 

opment, and not a single object of this type was 
known to Herschel and all astronomers who lived 
before him." 

The great naked eye nebula in Andromeda (see 
engraving) has been proven to be a spiral, though it 
is so placed that w T e can only see it edgewise. The 
stupendous naked-eye nebula in the sword handle 
of Orion is not a spiral. The latter represents the 
first stage and the former the third degree of de- 
velopment in the formation of solar systems. 

26 



ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 

Now let us consider the formation of our present 
solar system out of a spiral nebula. Dr. Ball says 
that the first point in the formation of a spiral 
nebula is "the gradual tendency to the form of a 
flat plane/ ■" Then momentum is started by the at- 
traction of one particular molecule of matter upon 
another, the same law which is applicable in every 
part of the universe. 

Now let us imagine (and with the best of reasons) 
our solar system to have at one time been a gigantic 
spiral nebula extending from the sun in every direc- 
tion to beyond the orbit of Neptune. Now, again, 
let us imagine the whole mass revolving in the same 
direction which the sun and all of the planets are now 
going, from west to east. Let us think also that while 
this motion is in progress radiation of heat and con- 
traction of the molecules are also progressing. Now 
as the ages roll by this radiation, contraction and 
attractive force continues until a part of the outer 
rim of this revolving mass is thrown off and the 
elements of a planet is born — first Neptune, if not 
some other undiscovered planet' or planets beyond 
Neptune. Ages roll by again and these same forces 
keep up their respective motions and Uranus is 
produced. Now let successive ages roll by and suc- 

•27 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 






m 




m&2 



Typical Sun Spot. 

Drawn by Langley, March 31, 1875. 

cessive planets he produced until the entire present 
solar system is produced and we have the most 
plausible theory yet advanced as to its formation — 
all revolving in the same direction as the sun and 
almost in the same plane — a beautiful, systematic, 
majestic panorama to comtemplate. But the nebular 
theory' has its objectors and exceptions, chiefest 
among its doubts is the condition Ave find of the 
satellites of Uranus and Neptune. 

Now it is known that the satellites of the Earth, 
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn revolve around each 
planet just in the same manner in which the 
planet revolves around the sun, these moons also 

revolve in a plane which passes through the 

28 



ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 

center of the planet and at right angles to the 
planet's axis. But this rule does not hold in 
the cases of Uranus and Neptune. The satellites of 
Uranus are in a plane nearly perpendicular to the 
plane of the ecliptic making practically a retrograde 
movement from the direction in which the moons of 
the other planets revolve, with the exception of the 
single moon of Neptune whose orbit shows a still 
greater difference. In fact there is confusion in 
these outer planets. But astronomers have not yet 
found out the direction in which they revolve on 
their axis. Neither can they tell whether they re- 
volve at all or not. But the supposition is that the 
motions and orbits of the satellites of Uranus and 
Neptune conform with the motions and orbits of the 
satellites of the other planets, and it remains one of 
the unsolved problems. But the conclusions of Dr. 
Ball are of importance and may be true ; coming 
from such high authority, we append them — "The 
movements of the satellites of Uranus and Neptune 
do not disprove the nebular theory. They rather 
illustrate the fact that the great evolution which has 
wrought the solar system into form has not yet fin- 
ished its work ; it is still in progress. The work is 
very nearly done, and when that work shall have 

29 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

been completed the satellites of Uranus and Neptune 
will no longer be dissociated from the general con- 
cord." 



:u) 



THE SUN. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE SUN. 

Thou material God ! 
And representation of the Unknown — 
Who chose thee for his shadow! Thou chief star! 
Center of many stars! which mak'st our earth 
Endurable and temperest the hues 
And hearts of all who walk within thy rays! 
Sire of the seasons, monarch of the climes! 
And those who dwell in them, for near or far. 
Our inborn spirit has a tint of thee! 

* : — thou dost rise 
And shine and set in Glory. — Byron. 

The Sun is the last remaining dying embers of a 
once enormous spiral nebula. Such is the conclu- 
sion of the most eminent astronomers. 

As to the extent of this primeval spiral nebula let 
us point to our farthest known planet, Neptune, 
whose mean distance from the sun is about 2,800, 
000,000 of miles. Now this is the length of but one 
spoke in the wheel, or half the diameter of the orig- 
inal nebula of 5600 millions of miles. Now this spiral 
after throwing off the various planets in successive 
ages, has dwindled down to what is now a mere 
nothing in size to what it originally was, yet it is 
now the grandest body in our system of worlds. 

The body of the sun as it now is. is computed to 

31 






LOOK TNG SKYWARD. 





From Technical World. 
The Sun, as the camera reveals it. 



(1) 



\V1 



THE SUN. 

be 866 thousands of miles in diameter — a big thing. 
This means that it is 1200 thousand times larger 
than the earth — and we think the earth is a wonder- 
fully large body when we attempt to travel about 
it. A common way of explaining the enormous size 
of the sun (see page 35) is to place the earth and 
the moon's orbit in the center of the sun; the sun 
would be so large as to cover all of the earth and 
the entire orbital space between the moon, and the 
earth and also extend bevond in every direction to a 
distance of one hundred and ninety thousands of 
miles. Now this is but the main body of the sun. 
There are prominences at times noticed (sometimes 
called flames) of the sun which extended out for 
hundreds of thousands of miles. Still, again there is 
the zodiacal light, which Young says is a lind of 
luminous atmosphere of the sun. This extends many 
million of miles further out. But this is not all. 
There is a less luminous light which extends in the 
path of Ihe ecliptic, and beyond the zodiacal light. 
and engulfing the orbits of some of the nearer planets. 
This lio-ht can be noticed by anyone who cares to 
look when the sky is clear, and the moon is arone 
and the twilight has disappeared. This phenomenon 
may be noticed hours before sunrise and hours after 

33 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

sunset and vet is one of the unsolved problems of 
astronomy, unless it possibly is an extension of the 
atmosphere of the sun. Pretty big even now ! 

Still practically all astronomers agree that the sun 
is shrinking in volume and heat, and in the course 
of the ages to come will be robbed of its luminosity 
and become a dead world in infinity. This, say& 
Young, is the belief, in the face of the fact that no 
records of the past show, or no scientific instruments 
have been known to detect the least loss of heat from 
the sun in two thousand years past. Such is the 
enormity of the life of a heavenly body as compared 
to the life of a human being. 

The sun is our nearest fixed star, and is thought to 
be a variable star, and its mean distance from the 
earth is 93 millions of miles. Fixed star though it 
may be called, yet, in the popular sense it is known 
to be moving, together with its system of worlds, at 
a very rapid rate through space. 

The light of the sun by means of the spectroscope, 
is divisible into very manv colors and tints, each 
color is known to represent one of the minerals 
found on the earth. Among the missing ones is 
gold. From the remotest human antiquity the sun 
has been worshiped as a God by many nations. The 

34 



THE SUN. 




Photo by Campbell, 1S98. 
Total eclipse of the Sun. showing the surrounding photosphere. 

Romans, the Ancient Britons, the Incas of Peru, the 
Ancient Mexicans and even the modern Indians 
were known to be sun-worshipers. 

The eclipses of the sun are caused by the moon 
getting between the earth and the sun. A total 
eclipse of the sun is produced where the moon is 
in perigee or at the nearest point to the earth ; and 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 




From Young. 
Comparative sizes of the Earth and the Sun — -the Earth repre- 
sented by the small dot at bottom. 

the annular eclipse of the sun, with the moon in the 

center and a thin rim of the sun appearing around 

it is brought about when the moon is in apogee or 

36 



THE SUN. 



the farthest distance form the earth. The duration 
of the eclipses of the sun are much shorter than the 
eclipses of the moon. Savage people of all ages and 





wk • M 


ML M 






# 




^ 4* * 


" ** * 




Hk 


- / 


itti 


1 # 





From Goodsell Observatory. 
Sections of the Sun. showing progression of Sun-spots. 

countries have always regarded eclipses of the sun 
as ill omens. Civilized people of modern times wit- 

37 



LOO K I NG SKYWARD. 

ness these phenomena with wonder and admiration. 
Astronomers take advantage of these events to 
study the outer coverings of the sun. and very great 
attention is given the eclipses by the scientists in 
the great observatories, and much of value to us is 
expected in discovering the true constitution of our 
god of day. 

Sim spots are of two kinds, viz: the faeulae, bright 
spots (sometimes called little torches) and the mac- 
ulae or black spots. The faeulae are seen in all parts 
of the sun's surface but more noticeable in the vicin- 
ity of the maculae or black spots and around the rim 
of the sun. But it is the black spots to which I 
will call your attention. 

The first appearance of a spot is at the rim or 
edge of the sun in the shape of a dark streak with 
elevated ends. As the sun revolves on its axis a 
depression is noticed in the rim of the sun. As the 
spot advances toward the center of the sun the 
penumbra or gray colored rim of the spot is seen, 
then the umbra or jet black part of the spot appears 
to the observer many thousands of miles below the 
surface of the sun. AVhen the spot has arrived at or 
near the center of the sun the entire umbra and 
penumbra may be seen in all their majesty. This 

38 



THE SUN. 

same process may be noticed as the spot approaches 
the western rim of the sun and finally disappears 
from view altogether. According to Kennev in 

o en « 

Hick's Magazine it takes from twelve to fourteen 
days for a spot to traverse the entire face of the sun. 

Spots are nearly always seen in groups and belts. 
Single spots are seldom ever seen. They assume all 
sorts of shapes and are continually changing shape 
and position. Their sizes range from so small as 
to barely be seen through the telescopes 
to sizes so large as to be seen bv the naked eve 
through smoked glass. Spots, says Kennev, have 
been seen as large as 144.000 miles in diameter. The 
writer saAv a group of small ones so crowded to- 
gether as to at first appear as one, in September 
1905. which measured more than 160,000 miles in 
diameter. 

Sun spots come and go periodically. There is a 
maximum and minimum time which takes place in 
about eleven years. 

Although spots have, according to history, been 
noticed on the sun for more than one thousand 
years, long before the discovery of the telescope by 
Galileo, they have not been considered of much im- 
portance, by scientists, until recent years. More 

39 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

powerful telescopes, spectroscopes and the camera 
have been great aids in the advancement of astron- 
omy, still it is not definitely known what causes these 
spots on the sun. But there are a number of theories 
advanced. Two of the most plausible might be men- 
tioned viz: 1st, that they are produced by explosions 
from within the body of the sun which are so pow- 
erful as to part the chromosphere, which surrounds 
the sun, and thus be seen by us. But an explosion 
would last but a short time while the spots often 
last for weeks and months, though changing form 
and position ; 2nd, the most likely theory of all yet 
mentioned is that they are storms which take place 
within the surrounding luminous chromosphere of 
the sun which is described, by M. Flammarion, 
the eminent living French astronomer, as flame. 
Another describes the chromosphere and photos- 
phere of the sun as a " burning singeing mass' 
ever changing, ever burning. I have noticed fre- 
quently that as soon as a large spot appears on the 
edge of the sun a change in the temperature of the 
atmosphere of the earth takes place and storms often 
prevail. The extent and durability of the storm is 
according to the size and the number of the spots. 
It is reasoned that a black spot appearing 

40 



THE SUN. 

on the sun would naturally produce a cool- 
ing temperature in the earth's atmosphere conse- 
quently causing rainfall and winds to prevail. 

Some claim that the sun storms are electrical and 
that they produce our auroras and disturb our elec- 
trical machinery, and that electricitv is life. 

As the condensation proceeds on the sun is it not 
likely that other cosmic matter might be thrown off 
and other worlds be formed? By watching the 
movements of the spots it is noticed that the sun re- 
volves on its axis once in twentv-five of our davs. 
and as it is nearly nine hundred thousand miles in 
diameter this axial motion is enormous, and thus it 
is possible that the centrifugal force might throw off 
other worlds from the remaining nebulous (prob- 
ably) mass, as the sun is known to be much lighter 
than the earth. 



41 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 





O c *** A 



CLT*> 



£<t'*.*s 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE EARTH— WORLD. 

"I am not at all uneasy that 1 came into, and have so far 
passed my course in this world; because I have so lived in it 
that I have reason to believe I have been of some use to it; 
and when the close comes, I shall quit life as I would an inn 
and not as a real home. For nature appears to me to have 
ordained this station here for us, as a place of sojournment, a 
transitory abode, only, and not as a fixed settlement or perma- 
nent habitation." — Cicero. 

The earth, in early history, was supposed to be 
flat — a plain. That ancient geographer and astron- 
omer Ptolemy who lived at Alexandria, Egypt, 
about A. D. 130, extended and systematized the 

7 t 

ideas of his predecessors, especially Apollonius and 
Hipparchus, says Webster. Polemy supposed that 
the earth was stationary, and was the center of the 

42 



THE EARTH— WORLD. 

universe, about which the sun and stars revolved 
It is a curious fact, also, that this theory prevailed 
among all peoples of the educated classes for four- 
teen centuries after Ptolemy. It is really marvelous 
how such a fallacious idea could prevail so long 
among such learned people, as they professed to be. 
But it remained for Copernicus, (born 1173, died 
1543) to advance the true theory that the sun stood 
still and the earth and the several planets revolved 
around it. thus rendering his name immortal. But 
there were many avIio did not believe Copernicus 
was right, even among the educated. That daily 
motion with which all the stars and the sun and the 
moon appear to be carried around the earth every 
twenty-four hours and as earnestly believed in by 
Ptolemy, was hard to eradicate from the minds of 
manv. Some even went so far as to sav that if the 
earth revolved on its axis every twenty-four hours, so 
rapid would be the motion that the wind would 
carry everything off of the surface. But Copernicus 
convinced himself that the atmosphere revolved 
Avith the earth, which is doubless true to a great ex- 
tent. Remember that this was long before a true 
knowledge of the components of the heavenly bodies 
had been made manifest and it was hard to eon- 

43 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

vince people that the Ptolemaic theory was wrong. 
But there continued to be many followers of Coper- 
nicus, Columbus was one who believed that the 
earth was round and that if he would sail west from 
his native country of Spain he would eventually ar- 
rive at the same point of departure by arriving from 
the east and proof would then be established that 
the earth was in fact round. This was in 1492. But 
Columbus, on discovering America, got no further 
west, although he attempted to go farther several 
times afterwards. The efforts of Columbus were not 
enough to satisfy his successors and repeated attempts 
were made and all proved futile until Ferdinand Ma- 
Gellen, 30 years later, and a native of Portugal, after 
enduring great hardships, and consuming more than 
two years of time succeeded in circumnavigating 
the globe and setting at rest for all time the fact 
that the earth was round — a sphere. This was ac- 
complished in 1522. 

But mathematical measurements have determined 
that the earth is not quite a sphere but a sphereoid 
— an ellipsoid. The diameter at the polls is 7.9.00 
miles, but at the equator it is 26 miles greater or 
7,926 miles. Now this is one of the very best argu- 
ments in favor of the nebular theory, i. e., that the 

44 



THE EARTH— WORLD. 

earth primarily -was in a gaseous state and a part of 
the parent nebula. Having been thrown off from 
the original by revolution, it has been cooling and 
solidifying through the ages until at present it is 
called solid. But the revolution on its axis has 
caused the flattening at the polls and thickening at 
the equator, proving the lack of the present solidity 
in the earlier stages. Allowing the existence of the 
doubtful planet Vulcan (and I have no reason to 
dispute its existence) the earth is the fourth planet 
nearest to the sun. Its revolution around the sun is 
accomplished in 365 days 5 hours and 48 minutes 
and 48 seconds. This is but one of the twelve mo 
tions of the earth through space which it is known 
to have ; and the orbit is elliptical. The distribution 
of heat over the surface of the earth varies because 
of the inclination of its axis to the ecliptic which is 
23 degrees and 27 minutes. This causes the seasons. 
The mean distance from the sun is about 93 millions 
of miles and the extent of the orbit is about 560 mil- 
lions of miles, and it moves at the enormous rate of 
nearly twenty miles per second. Another motion 
is the axial, which it performs every 24 hours, and 
at the rate of 17 miles per minute. 

Now of those ten other motions made by the earth 

45 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

which astronomers have found to take place I will 
only mention a few in this brief space, viz : the ret- 
rogrades, caused by the attractions of other bodies ; 
the movement of the whole solar system through 
space ; the change in position of the polar axis con- 
suming about 25,000 years of time ; the wobbling 
motion; the precession of the equinoxes; the siderial 
motion etc. etc. 

Now let us see if we cannot find some pretty sub- 
stantial testimony in proof of the so called "nebular 
theory' the thought that the earth originally was 
in a gaseous state and came from the parent nebula 
which eventually was formed into our present solar 
system. 

Previously we have stated that the earth has been 
found to not be a true sphere but a sphereoid, and 
the greatest diameter being at the equator where 
the rapid motion of 17 miles per minute of the body 
seems to have increased the equatorial diameter 26 
miles more than that of the polar diameter. Now we 
know that this could not be made if the earth were al- 
ways a solid body as it appears to be now, so this di- 
lated form must have been made during a period 
when it was in a gaseous or liquid form. 

Again we see in our every day life parts of the 

46 



THE EARTH— WORLD. 

solid matter of the earth transformed into gases, 
smoke, dust, heat, vapors etc. This solid matter 
comes largely from the mines in the form of coal 
and minerals of commerce. Thus we know that it is 
not correct reasoning to believe that the earth was al- 
ways solid. How true the Biblical saying is that 
"dust ye are of and unto dust ye shall return.' 
So since the present solid and weighty components 
can be converted into imponderable and expansive 
gases and less dense elements it is correct reasoning 
to believe that it formerly was made up of similar 
transformation. Now as evidence that the earth's 
interior is not solid and cold but made up of burning 
liquid matter we introduce the following from the 
United States Department of the Interior in refer- 
ence to the Geological survey and deep borings and 
mines of the world, viz : 

As the earth is penetrated below the zone of sea 
sonal changes by wells, mines, tunnels, and other 
excavations, the temperature is almost invariably 
found to rise. The rate of rise, however, is far 
from uniform. If we set aside as exceptional the 
unusually rapid rise near volcanoes and in other lo- 
calities of obvious igneous influence, the highest 
rates are still six times the lowest. A large number 

47 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

of records have been collected by the committee on 
Underground Temperatures, of the British Associ- 
ation for the Advancement of Science. These range 
from one degree P. in less than 20 feet to 1 degree F. 
in 130 feet, with an average of 1 degree F. in 50 to 
60 feet, which has usually been taken as representa- 
tive. The more recent deep borings that have been 
carefully measured with due regard to sources of 
error indicate a slower rate of rise. Some of the 
more notable records are as follows: 

Depth ( feet. ) Rate of rise. 

Sperenberg bore (Germany) 3492 1 deg. F. in 51.5 ft. 

Schladeback bore (Germany) 5030 1 deg. F. in 01.7 ft. 

Cremorne bore (X. S. Wales) 2929 1 deg. F. in 80 it. 

Paruschowitz bore (Upper Silesia). 0408 1 deg. F. in 02.2 ft. 

Wheeling well (W. Va.) 44(12 1 deg. F. in 74.1 ft. 

St. Gothard tunnel (Italy-Switzer- 
land ) 5578 1 deg. F. in 82 ft. 

Mt. Cenis tunnel (France-Italy) 5280 1 deg. F. in 70 ft. 

*Tamarack mine (North Michigan).. 4450f 1 deg. F. in 100 ft. 

*Calumet and Hecla mine (N.Mich.) 4939f 1 deg. F. in 103 ft. 

Ditto, between 3324 and 4837 ft.. . 1 deg. F. in 93.4 ft. 

*These are reckoned by assuming that the temperature of 
no variation at 50 feet oelow the surface is 40 degrees F. 

fThese mines have been deepened and are now over 5280 
feet and the deepest shafts in America. 

It is to be noted that even these selected records 
vary a hundred per cent. Very notable variations 

48 



THE EARTH— WORLD. 

are found in the same mine or well, and often much 
difference is found in adjacent records, especially 
those of artesian wells. Some of these are explain- 
able, but the full meaning of other variations is yet 
to be found. 

From Pennsylvania the following important data 
comes, viz: "the deepest hole in this state is a well 
at West Elizabeth, Allegany County. The depth is 
5,575 feet and the temperature at the bottom is 
130 degrees F. Henry C. Demming, State Geologist. * 

Again in a published list of deep borings of a 
depth of 490 feet and more, of the United States 
Geological Survey, the number reaches into the 
thousands and probably one half of them exceed 
1,000 feet in depth. Now the bottom temperature 
of only a part of these was secured. But one, no- 
tably I mention, is in Falls County, Texas. Depth 
3,350 feet and temperature at the bottom was found 
to be 147 degrees F. Now the foregoing are re- 
cords of the deep borings in the United States only. 
What chronicles of the deep borings in the remain- 
der of the world are we cannot say, except of the 
following instance, viz : 

EARTH HAS WARM HEART. 

Berlin, July 20, 1910. — The latest measurements 

40 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

of the temperature of the earth's interior have been 
communicated to the German Geological Society. 
They were taken in a borehole, which is situated 
near Czuchow, in Upper Silesia, and is the deepest 
hole in the world. 

It was sunk under the direct control of the Prus- 
sian state authorities and at first was intended to 
reach to a depth of 2,500 meters, or somewhat over 
one and a half miles. The difficulties increased as 
greater depths were attained, and at 7,456 feet be- 
low the surface, work had to be stopped, still about 
nine hundred feet short of the goal. 

The hole is about a foot and a half in circumference 
and it has been found that the temperature increases 
with fair regularity, 1 degree Fahrenheit for every 
fifty-four feet. Incursions of water frequently in- 
terfered with the accuracy of the measurements, but 
at 7,456 feet, the greatest depth ever reached, the 
temperature has been found to amount to 182 de- 
grees Fahrenheit. 

Now it is found that after we descend below a 
depth of from 50 to 70 feet in the crust of the earth 
the temperature invariably rises, with the bare ex- 
ception that in the vicinity of active volcanoes, 

50 



THE EARTH— WORLD. 

where the surface temperature goes lower or slighl 
lv below 100 feet. 

Let us look at this latest deep boring in Germany, 
where at a depth of 7,456 feet a temperature of 182 
degrees was reached whicl is at the rate of about 
160 degrees of temperature to the mile of 5,280 feet 
&.t ten miles of depth this would mean a tempera- 
ture of 1,600 degrees. At 20 miles of depth this 
would mean a temperature of 3,200 degrees. At 40 
miles in depth it would record a heat of 6,400 de- 
grees, which, according to Hollis, is "far above the 
fusing point of the most refractory metals.' 

Then there are the volcanoes which throw up mol- 
ten matter which appears to, and doubtless does, 
come from beneath the solid crust of the earth, and 
stands as a living example that the cooling and con- 
tracting process is constantly going on. 

Now let us briefly consider this crust formation. 
viz : The first solid formation known to geologists 
is called the granite rock or azoic age, in which no 
animal or plant remains are found and is the source 
from which our "grey boulders' of the fields 
came from crevasses and dykes through the 
upper crust. Aeons of time passed and more crust 
formed to the protOzoic era when the first animals 

51 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

and plants bearing a single cell came into existence, 
and called the invertibrates. The next period 
brought the vertibrates or animals with a backbone 
But space will not allow a consideration of the numer- 
ous ages through which the earth has passed in the 
formation of its crusts, but when the plant age came 
mammoth trees and other plants grew and the con- 
traction process continuing, great convulsions took 
place and the forests were engulfed and our present 
coal beds came into existence and oils, also of our 
commerce were produced. 

Thus age followed age up to the present time. 
Estimates of the thickness of this crust have been 
made up to 40 miles but it doubtless may be much 
thinner ; still the only way to prove the thickness is 
to go down through it, which man cannot do on ac- 
count of the increasing heat and other mechanical 
difficulties. But a friend recently remarked that if 
governments would utilize some of the money which 
is being wasted foolishly on great battleships, and, 
for the advancement of science, go down deeper, 
more proof could be found as to whether or not the 
nebular theorv is correct. 

Still what we do know shows that the farther 
down into the interior of the earth we penetrate the 

52 



THE EARTH— WORLD. 

hotter it becomes and (with this knowledge i it 
must be that the interior is a molten mass, and in a 
chaotic state, resembling, and proving the "nebular 
theory." TVe can draw no other reasonable con- 
elusion until more proof is found. 

Now it is the opinion of geologists as well as 
astronomers that the earth is cooling off. and will, 
sometime in the future be a dead world, as far as 
animal and plant life is concerned. We will refer 
the reader to two notable examples near at hand, 
viz : the moon which is without air, water or life. 
Then Mars, whose air and water are nearly gone, 
and the inhabitants (whom I firmly believe exist 
there) are conserving the water supply by making 
those wonderful irrigating canals, which the great 
telescopes reveal. 

We cannot tell, so much, that our air supply is 
diminishing but there is evidence on every hand 
that our water and heat supplies are decreasing — 
two most important life sustaining elements. "VTe find 
that the heat though still abundant at the equator 
is growing less as we approach the poles. On every 
hand we see eA'idences of the diminishing water sup- 
ply. A puny stream now flows in our deep valleys 
where once existed enormous bodies of flowing water. 

53 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

They have left their tell-tale testimonies in the exten- 
sive sand and gravel beds and monstrous deeply 
worn valleys and canons. Again, the deserts of the 
world are beyond doubt dried up sea, and ocean 
beds; all geologists so say. It is true that nearly 
%ths. of the land is yet covered with water, still the 
unmistakable fact remains that our water supply 
is failing, and as Dr. Lowell says that "there will 
be a time on this earth when water will be more 
precious than gold. ' ' 

Dr.AVinchell says this about our heat, viz: "While 
we build our cities and recount the achievements of 
a few generations past, this globe of matter hurries 
onward in its destined career as rapidly as a mil- 
lion years ago, when preparing for the occupancy 
of Adam's race. Every vear and every dav witnesses 
the dissipation of terrestrial warmth. While we 
ponder the great fact, the world is growing cold be- 
neath our feet. The current of events is carrying 
us inevitably to a state of total refrigeration.' 

The same eminent geologist says of the passing of 
the human race from the earth, viz:" Year by year 
the population becomes less — year by year the 
dread empire of frost is extended. Forests have 
been consumed; cities have been burned; navies 

54 



THE EARTH— WORLD. 

have rotted in the deserted ice locked harbors ; men 
have immuned themselves in gloomy caverns till they 
have almost lost the forms of humanity. The end ar- 

_ * £k £4i £k ££ --'* :?£ sV; 

rives. 

The once fair earth is a cold and desolate corpse, 
Natures tears are ice ; she Aveeps no more. * * * * * 
The spirits of Heaven mourn at the funeral of 
Nature." 

But let us conclude this chapter with another 
thought. In this year of 1910 the human race is 
living in a wonderfully progressive and destructive 
age. In the mad rush for supremacy and gold we 
are taxing the resources of our planet. Great armies 
and navies are being maintained by the wasteful 
nations, needlessly. Our coal mines are being ex- 
hausted at the rate of about one billion tons per 
year. It is estimated that in less than one thousand 
more years the stores of the earth's coal mines will 
all be consumed. No new coal is being formed. 
When the present supply is exhausted there will be 
no more. The oil supply is being wasted also. There 
certainly is a limit and it will come too soon. The 
crust of the earth is being pierced and torn by power- 
ful explosives. Our state geologist states that in In- 
diana alone 30,000 deep wells have been drilled since 

55 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

1889, a period of but 21 years. Most of these have 
been blasted with great quantities of nitro-glycerine, 
tearing up vast scopes of the solid crust of the earth. 
which does not become solid again. Other states 
in the Union are operating on the earth's crust in 
the same way in the search of coal, oil and the differ- 
ent minerals. The same process is being carried on 
throughout the civilized world — some places more 
extensively than others. But these diggings, bore- 
ings and blastings are on the increase everywhere 
— all for temporary gain and gold. They think 
nothing of prolonging the life of the planet, but dig, 
dig, dig for temporal gain, falsely called wealth, 
which, at the most, they can enjoy but a short while. 
They think not of the misery they are bringing onto 
their progeny by this wastefulness and destruction 
of natures supplies — this devastation of the home 
which the God of nature gave us. What will the re- 
sult be . ? Will the planet become the victim of its 
so called human inhabitants ? Will it be torn, divid- 
ed, blasted until it falls to pieces or is blown to bits 
by the explosions and BECOMES A BELT OF 
ASTEROIDS COURSING AROUND THE SUN 
WHERE ONCE ROLLED OUR FAIR EARTH » 



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THE MOON. 







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*2H 





The Moon. 



CHAPTER V. 

With how sad steps, O Moon, thon climb'st the sky. 
How silently, and with how wan a face. 
Where art thon? Thon whom I have seen on high, 
Running among the clouds * * * 

— Wordsworth. 
THE MOOX. 

When Galileo pointed his crude little telescope 



07 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

toward the moon he had the distinguished honor of 
being* the first human being recorded in history who 
viewed that beautiful luminary through a telescope 
which, as stated by him, "was devised by me 
through God's grace first enlightening my mind.' 
Those people now living who see the moon through 
a magnifying instrument for the first time can have 
but a faint idea of Galileo's thoughts. Every one 
who reads and who looks at pictures of the moon as 
numerous as they are now can form a fairly correct 
conception of how it appears before employing the 
glass, but this illustrious astronomer had no guide, 
no criterion, no picture, no example of any kind to 
see, other than that which his naked eve revealed. 
History tells us that the moon was the first celestial 
object upon which he turned his telescope, hence 
his eyes were the first to behold the wonderful 
mountains and mountain ranges, the supposed 
rivers and oceans, and a world not unlike our own 
was conceived to exist. This was 300 years ago. 
Now the telescope proves that no rivers or oceans 
exist there, now simply the dried up beds remain. 

The moon is 2,162 miles in diameter, or a little 
more than Vith as big as the earth. It travels around 
the earth in an ellipse. Its greatest distance is 253,- 

58 



THE MOOX. 

263 miles. At this point in its orbit it is called "'in 
apogee." Its nearest approach to the earth is 221,263 
miles and this point is called "in perigee.' Its mean 
distance is 238,885 miles. These figures are from 
Loomis. Other later calculators have reduced the 
figures to 238,840 miles, or 45 miles less. The time 
of the moon's revolution about the earth with refer- 
ence to the sun is about 29 Vo days and with relation 
to the stars about 27 1 / 4 days. The moon revolves 
on its axis but one time during each journey around 
the earth, hence it nearlv alwavs shows the same 
side to us, and nearlv one half of its surface is never 
seen by us. The principal light received by it is 
given by the sun thus the many beautiful phases are 
presented to us. When it is what we call "new" in 
the western sky in the form of a thin crescent our 
first interesting sights, after passing the sun, begin. 
When the sky is clear the bright sun-light forms the 
crescent while the light reflected from the earth 
may be dimly seen showing the outlines of the re- 
mainder of its surface which is turned toward 
us. Then it is said the "old moon is resting in 
the arms of the new moon." Again along the 
edge of the concave surface of the crescent, and 
extending toward the east, may be seen the first 

59 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

shadows of the lunar mountains in jet black mark- 
ings, the blackness of which is taken, by some 
astronomers, as our proof that the moon has no 
atmosphere and is lifeless. If there was an atmos- 
phere similar to what is found on the earth, and 
some of the planets, the lunar shadows would not 
be near so black as the reflection of light through 
the atoms of the air prevent such a phenomenon. 

In 24 hours and with the aid of an opera glass 
the observer will notice a perceptable enlargement 
and lengthening, also an increase in the numbers of 
those shadows. Higher magnifyers will show these 
changes in much shorter time. With a telescope of 
a' power of 125 diameters the writer has noticed 
changes in a few minutes. 

In about six days after the first appearance of the 
moon in the western sky the so called first quarter 
appears. Then one half of the surface is covered 
by sun-light and the other half is invisible because 
of the increased brightness of the first half. The 
brilliant white light appears to increase in greater 
contrast to the deep black of the mountain, crater 
and valley shadows and which increase in interest 
to the observer. After the first quarter until the 
full moon and after the full till third quarter ap- 



THE MOOX. 

pears, the moon is called gibbous. At full moon 
when all the surface is covered the observer looks 
down (or up) on the tops of the mountains which 
are in the center of the surface and no shadows at 
all are seen except short ones around the rim and 
which are hard to distinguish, on account of the ex- 
cessive sun-light. For the same reason it is best seen 
in the twilight of the evening. In full sun-light the 
moon is too dim, and the telescope increases the 
dimness as to not be seen with much pleasure. From 
full to new moon the same interesting changes take 
place in its phases and at all times during visibility 
it is a wonderfully beautiful telescopic object. The 
moon's path around the earth is a perfect spiral and 
in its course it crosses the equator of the earth and 
the ecliptic (the apparent path of the sun") twice 
each revolution around the earth. This accounts 
for its appearance north and south in the zodiac, so 
frequently which every one can notice. 

During the winter months the moonlight is bright- 
er in the northern hemisphere of the earth, and sun- 
lis'ht less bright. This is brought about by the 
course of the earth in its path when the sun appears 
to move south making our days shorter and nights 
longer and the sun shining with more slant gives us 

t;i 






LOOKING SKYWARD. 

less light. This is a wonderful provision of God for 
our benefit. Otherwise our wintry nights would be 
much darker, and our welfare and happiness dimin- 
ished, accordingly. 

Webster defines the moon as "the heavenly body 
second in conspicuousness to the sun' 1 and it is the 
only satellite which the earth has. The earth also 
is the first planet out from the sun which is known 
to have a satellite, and it, also, is a curious fact that 
every other discovered planet outside of the earth's 
orbit has one or more moons, and new ones are be- 
ing discovered frequently. 

The side of the moon turned toward the earth is 
the only part which the observer from the earth can 
ever see. Some writers claim that part of the side 
from us may be seen at stated times but I fail to un- 
derstand how it is brought about. The side from us 
can get no heat or light from the. sun on about one 
seventh part of the back surface hence it must be 
pretty cold there, says another writer. It is known 
that the sun shines constantly on part of one side, 
hence that particular part must be exceedingly hot. 
Again, for nearly 1-1 days the sun light shines on 
most of one side while one seventh of the opposite 
side is in darkness, which produces excessive cold 

62 



THE MOOX. 

and heat alternately, and when we know that there 
are no clouds to modify the temperature those ex- 
tremes must be enormous. 

To us the eclipses of the moon are invitingly in- 
teresting events. Eclipses are brought about by the 
moon passing through the shadow of the earth. In 
revolving around the earth the moon catches up 
with and enters the shadow as both bodies go in the 
same direction. Eclipses are of two kinds — umbral 
and penumbral — the dark shadow and the light 
shadow. The moon sometimes only passes through 
the penumbra but it often passes through both. A 
total eclipse is when the moon is completely covered 
by the umbra. A partial eclipse is when the moon 
is onlv partly covered by the umbra, and the extent 
of the surface is numbered in digits from 1 to 12, or 
totality — 1 digit is very small and 11 digits is near- 
total. The moon's Saros, Librations, Apsides, etc., 
etc., will be passed over. 

Serviss gives a list of ten colors and tints which 
he has discovered on the surface of the full moon, 
though the general appearance is white. No matter 
what the colors are there are various markings on 
the surface which have been noticed by people for 
ages past. Every body has heard of the "man in 

63 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 




Showing process of Eclipse of the Moon, which catches up with 

the Earth's shadows. 



the moon/ others have made out a woman in the 
moon. These of course are mere fancies which 
have been made out with the naked eve. These 
markings are really mountains, extinct volcanoes, 
river and sea beds and table lands. Astronomers 

64 (2) 



THE MOON. 

have names for every part of the moon's surface 
in the same manner as geographers have named the 
various parts of the earth's surface. Mountains are 
partly named after some of our early astronomers, 
such as Tycho, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Flam- 
stead, etc. etc. The sea beds are called "Humbolt 
Sea,' "Sea of Tranquility," "Ocean of Storms," 
etc. etc. These names are applied to facilitate the 
study and aid in finding the different parts and lo- 
calities. Heath says, "Tycho is probably the most 
conspicuous object on the moon's surface. It is a 
great crater plain with a broad circular wall built 
up of numerous terraces outside and inside. The 
wall rises to 17.000 feet above the floor. It has a 
central mountain about 6,000 feet high, surrounded 
by a mountainous mass not so high. The principal 
streak svstem radiates from Tvcho as a center and 
stretches over nearly a fourth of the visible surface 
of the moon. Toward the south they reach the edge. 
The moon is well covered with extinct volcanoes 
and craters of stupendous size. Ptolemy is 115 
miles in diameter within its walls, which consist of 
high mountains also. Copernicus has a ringed plain 
56 miles in diameter and with its terraced Avails and 
central peak forms one of the most perfect speci- 

05 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

mens of crater formation on the lunar surface. 

Even the sea beds have extinct craters in them, 
Mare Imbrium the largest has a number in it. 

Prof. Eric Doolittle relates an instance where the 
moon caused the discovery of a new star which no 
telescope had ever found thus : ' ' the moon had oc- 
culted a large star; a fraction of a second before the 
occultation passed off a faint little star appeared, 
immediately afterward the large star appeared in 
full brightness.' This event has been noticed twice 
in eleven years and is a remarkable discovery of a 
double star. Might not there be others found in a 
similar way? Here is a chance for an amateur, the 
Professor hints. The moon is constantly occulting 
stars, and often, large ones. 

The "Harvest Moon" is the first full moon after 
the autumnal equinox which is generally after har- 
vest time. 

It is the general belief of most astronomers that 
the moon was formerly a part of the earth. Accord- 
ing to the nebulae theory, the earth, being in a gas- 
eous or liquid state in revolving on its axis, cast off 
the matter of which the moon has since been formed. 
However, one man has recently advanced the theory 
that the moon is a captured planet — captured by the 

66 



THE MOON. 

earth from its wanderings in space. The man who 
brings forward this thought is Prof. T. J. J. See, of 
the U. S. Naval Observatory, in San Francisco Bay. 
Now there is no way yet known of proving this, but 
the writer thinks that it is not so plausible as the 
nebular theory which has its foundation in the 
primordial formation of worlds while Prof. See's 
idea does not. 

No water or air has ever been found on the moon. 
Consequently one is naturally led to believe that no 
life can exist there. But there is plenty of evidence 
that water in great quantities at one time existed 
there. Occasionally an amateur astronomer has 
reported seeing light clouds or mist floating over 
certain depressed portions of the moon's surface 
but subsequent observations by other astronomers 
have failed to establish any proof of such phenom- 
enon. Smoke from some of the mountain peaks have 
been reported and afterwards reported false. The 
river beds, lake, sea and ocean beds are revealed to 
us by the telescope, but the spectroscope and camera. 
in addition, reveal to us the existence there of no 
water or air, the two most life sustaining elements 
of the earth. Since there is no air or water or life 
on the moon it is in every sense a dead planet, re- 

(.7 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

volving around the earth and with the earth revolv- 
ing around the sun in a vacuum, a bleak, barren, 
cold world with only three redeeming features about 
it — its beauty as we behold it, and its activity in its 
pilgrimage around us, and giving us light. 

Now since it is clear in our minds that air and 
water once existed on the moon we naturally wonder 
what has become of these two most essential ele- 
ments of life 1 We see a great force in operation 
which holds the moon in its course around the earth, 
a force which keeps it from shooting off in a tan- 
gent or keeps it from standing still and becoming in- 
ert or immovable. We call this energy attraction. 
Astronomers see its operations at work in every part 
of the heavens. Now is it not within the bounds of 
reason to believe that the air and water, two of the 
lightest and most volatile elements in existence, 
could be drawn away from the moon by the stupen- 
dous attractive power of the earth? Of all other 
known elements water and air would be the first to 
be drawn away. The chemist will tell you that noth- 
ing is destroyed. It is only transformed from one 
species of substances to that of another. Could not 
water be drawn awav from the moon in the form of 
frozen vapor such as known to exist in the upper 

68 



THE MOON. 

regions of the air of the earth and which we call 
cat-tail or cirrus clouds ? Again gravitation on the 
moon's surface is known to be much less than on the 
earth — Flammarion savs, 0.174 — hence it would 
take much less force to draw a weighty substance 
away from the moon than it would to take the same 
from the earth. 

The earth being the moon's nearest neighbor 
among the worlds, objects leaving the body of the 
moon would surely go toward the earth by the pow- 
er of attraction. 

It is fairlv reasonable to believe also that the 
moon is the original source of many of the meteors 
which come to the earth. 



(J!) 



FiOOKING SKYWARD. 




1881, Mar. 22, 6h. 1881, Mar. 26, Tli. 1881, Mar. 28, P/ 2 Jti. 

Venus as an evening star. (10-inch reflector; power 212.) 

Showing different markings. 



CHAPTER VI. 



VENUS. 



Hesperus! Thou brightest of all good things 
Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer. 

— Byron. 

To begin this chapter on this very beautiful of 
heavenly orbs it might be proper to quote briefly 
from that very eminent living astronomer, Flam- 
marion to wit: "Hail, Venus, Queen of the Heavens 
— the Shepherd's Star — Gentle mother of the loves, 
goddess of beauty, eternally adored and cherished, 
sung and immortalized by poets and artists." 

70 



VENUS. 

Venus was so named by the ancients from the 
imaginary goddess of beauty and is yet called our 
morning and evening star. 

In fact she was known by at least four names, but 
Venus was the general name : and when she was 
morning star she was called Lucifer, and when eve- 
ning star Hesperus; also Vesper. Again Flammar- 
ion says, "Her splendid brilliancy attracted notice 
from the earliest antiquity, and we find her radiant 
and charming in the works of the ancients, who 
erected altars to her and adorned their poetry with 
her grace and beauty. Homer called her Callisto. 
the Beautiful. Cicero named her Vesper, the eve- 
ning star and Lucifer, the star of the morning. 

In early times she was thought to be two separate 
stars, hence her change of position brought about 
the different names. 

In Isaiah 1-1 C. 12 V., Ave find this passage, com- 
paring the star to the fate of the King of Babylon. 
"'How art thou fallen from Heaven. Lucifer, son 
of the morning, how art thou cut down to the 
ground.' In Paradise Lost in Book 10 verse 425 we 
find Venus compared to Satan thus : 

Of Pandemonium City and proud seat 

Of Lucifer: so by allusion called. 

71 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 



? 5 



Of that bright star to Satan paragoned. 

Other writers have used the name of Vesper for 
Venus. So many names and appellations having 
seemingly been brought about by her beauty and 
conspicuousness in the heavens, in all ages. 

Her diameter, 7,680 miles, is but about 300 miles 
smaller than the earth. She has a dense atmos- 
phere and her density is nearly the same as that of 
her sister orb the earth. For two centuries astron- 
omers have been trying to find out whether or not 
she has a moon like the earth and the conclusion of 
modern astronomers is that she is moonless. She 
completes a revolution around the sun in 2241/2 of 
our days. 

She shows phases like our moon (see page 70) 
and has periodical transits across the disk of the 
sun. These transits occur in pairs of 8 and 130 years 
apart. The last transits took place on December 8, 
1874, and December 6, 1882. The latter was wit- 
nessed by the writer, with a party of friends, on the 
afternoon of that day and was a most wonderful 
and awe-inspiring sight to behold. Conditions were 
most favorable for a good view by the aid of a 
small telescope and the impressions on our minds 
will last throughout life. The bright rim at first 

72 



VENUS. 

and last contacts were noticed showing the dense 
atmosphere of the planet. The next transits will 
occur on June 7, 2004 and June 5, 2012. 

Transits of Venus can only happen at her nodes. 
The nodes are the points where the planet crosses 
the ecliptic or apparent path of the sun. There is 
an ascending node and a descending node and the 
former happens when the planet is going north and 
the latter when going south of the ecliptic. The 
phases of Venus were discovered by Galileo in 1610. 
300 years ago, soon after he had invented the tele- 
scope. The phases are caused by the planet being 
between the earth and the sun and each revolution 
around the sun produces the same changes, and 
when our moon and Venus are close together or 
near occultation in the morning or evening sky the 
telescopic view is very pleasing and beautiful. 




O 



VCTLILS at Infer Ley % , J* u L t r ( *v 



73 



/ 

LOOKING SKYWARD. 

Assuming the existence of the doubtful planet 
Vulcan, Venus is the third planet out from the sun 
and consequently should be classed as younger than 
the earth. 

Excepting the moon, and the Asteroid Eros, 
Venus is the nearest planet to the earth. Her near- 
est approach is nearly 29 millions of miles. "This 
can occur only (according to Prof. Kenney) at in- 
ferior conjunction, and when the earth is exactly at 
perihelion and Venus at aphelion. The greatest dis- 
tance at which Venus can recede from the earth is 
162,102,000 miles.' This can only occur at superior 
conjunction, when the planet is 133 million of miles 
further away from us. At inferior conjunction her 
size is apparently seven times larger, yet we see her 
only as a thin crescent, like the moon when it first 
is visible after new. If the whole surface of Venus 
could be seen at this time our view of her would be 
about seven times brighter and consequently a 
much more beautiful sight in our morning or eve- 
ning sky. When she is at her greatest distance from 
us or at superior conunction she is so small as to 
scarcely show a surface through a three inch tele- 
scope and is less easily seen in daylight. 

Her average distance from the sun is 67 millions 

74 



VENUS. 

of miles or about 25 millions of miles nearer the sun 
than the earth ; hence the sun from Venus would look 
about one-third larger. Her surface is covered by a 
veil of dazzling silvery brilliancy of unknown com- 
position, or clouds, making the surface of the plan- 
et so hard to see. Since the telescope was invented 
astronomers have vied with each other as to the time 
of rotation on her axis. Loomis places the time at 
23 hrs. and 21 minutes ; Procter, 2-4 hours and 13 
minutes, thus making her day and night so near the 
same as that of the earth as to give strong reasons 
to believe her inhabited by animals and plants simi- 
lar to ours. But greater telescopes and more learned 
astronomers have changed the opinions from form- 
er observers of axial rotation. Flammarion savs, 
"We are not sure that she even rotates on her axis, 
so contradictorv are the observations and so dense 
is her cloud covering.' Again he says, "There is a 
possibility of eternal night on the one side and eternal 
dav on the other.' Other astonomers of our dav en- 
tertain similar opinions. But now comes Dr. Lowell 
with the startling assertion that he has almost positive 
proof that Venus revolves on her axis but a single 
time during her year of 224V1> days. On page 83 of 
"The Evolution of Worlds" he says, "To Venus the 



LOOK] XG S K YWAE D. 

sun stands stock still in the sky, a fact which must 
prove highly reassuring to Ptolemaic astronomers 
there if there be any surviving from her past. No 
day, no seasons, practically no year, diversifies ex- 
istence or records the flight of time, monotony etern- 
alized, such is the lot of Venus." 

Now Venus being much nearer to the sun is evi- 
dently much warmer from the heat of the sun. But 
if future astronomers verify Dr. Lowell's assertion 
that it always presents the same side to the sun it 
must be a poor place indeed for life to exist as we 
find it on our earth. 

There is a possibility that her dense clouds shade 
the planet enough to sustain some form of life on 
the side toward the sun. There the only semblance 
of night would be when the clouds are most dense. 
But how often this might occur is not known, and 
it is hard to conceive that a superior class of beings 
could exist there under such unfavorable conditions. 

But there is another possibility of life on part of 
the planet and that is around the rim, where perpet- 
ual light and perpetual darkness meet. This would 
be a narrow zone around the planet where summer 
and winter would be very close together, and a re- 
gion so cramped that few inhabitants, indeed, could 

70 



VENUS. 

exist, as compared to the almost eomi less numbers 
which Ave find on earth. But it is hoped that Dr. 
Lowell and his contemporary believers are mistaken 
— that the revelations of future more perfected and 
more powerful astronomical instruments will prove 
that the indisputable and real conditions may be 
made knoAvn to us, and that lovelv Venus niav be a 
suitable abode for our souls when done with earth. 
Still Dr. Lowell has great advantages in his obser- 
vations not accorded to many — if any— on the globe. 
His mountain elevation ; his nearly perfect climate 
with but few cloudy days in the year ; his adoption 
of the method of Dr. Schiaparelli in making noon- 
dav observations of Venus, wherebv the entire orbit 
of the planet may be viewed at a single survey of the 
heavens, and, which is an improvement over the 
short incomplete night observations ; his superior 
instruments together with his making a specialty of 
the studv of our near neighbor, all in all tend to 
make his arguments well nigh invulnerable. Still 
so learned a man as Prof. T. J. J. See and many ad- 
vanced astronomers persist in claiming that Venus 
has a diurnal revolution nearly similar to that of the 
earth. In a recent article in Sunset Magazine. Prof. 
See says, ''And as the Earth is so full of life of 

77 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 



every kind, it is impossible to doubt that a great 
variety of life exists on Venus, and the probability 
is that much of it is as highly organized as on our 
Earth." Thus great men differ. 



78 



SOME HINDRANCES IN THE STUDY OF ASTRONOMY. 

CHAPTER VII. 

SOME HINDRANCES IN THE STUDY OF ASTRONOMY. 

First are clouds. Though they are some of our 
best friends on a hot summer day, or when a shower 
is needed. We cannot see beyond the earth when the 
dense clouds intervene. When clouds are low in the 
form of what we call fog, it is difficult to see far on 
earth, even. When anticipating an important event 
in the sky in the way of an eclipse of the sun or moon, 
a transit of Venus or Mercury, a view of one of the 
planets, or a comet or any other of the countless 
beautiful objects of the sky, and the clouds, at a 
critical moment, obscure the view Ave are sadlv dis- 
appointed and helpless in our ambition to know and 
see the wonders in the great beyond. 

The winds and the impurities in the atmosphere 
interfere greatly in the use of the telescope. The 
winds cause unsteadiness in the air waves and os- 
cillations of the instrument in a manner to make the 
object hard to see. The telescope in shortening the 
distance between the observer and the object con- 
denses the impurities as well as the light between 
the object and the observer but the harm done by 
the imperfections in the air exceed the gain in the 
condensed light. Hence it is very important to have 

79 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

as pure and clear an atmosphere as possible to get 
the best results and finest views. The intense light 
of the sun and the moon prevents satisfactory, and 
in most cases wholly difficult inspection of the other 
heavenlv bodies. 

On clear days the moon can be seen in the full 
sun-light. Of all the planets and fixed stars, Venus 
alone, can often be seen in full sunshine by the 
naked eye. Large meteors have been seen, also a 
few -comets, when near the earth, when the great 
orb of day was in his fullest brilliancy, but such oc- 
casions are rare, and the view imperfect. Full 
moon light hinders the best inspections of the 
planets and fixed stars and the most beautiful ob- 
jects of the skyward prospect. In fact, it is only in 
the entire absence of the moon and sun that the 
very best results are attained with or without the 
aid of the telescope. 

Next, distance. If we could step out of our homes 
and survey the heavens with our bare eyes and 
thereby learn what the moon consists of, see the 
beautiful phases of Mercury and Venus, see the 
wonderful canals on Mars, the mighty belts and 
satellites of gigantic Jupiter, the stupendous rings 
and attendant bodies of Saturn's great system of 

80 



SOME HINDRANCES IN THE STUDY OF ASTRONOMY, 

worlds, the distant arctic planets of Uranus and Nep- 
tune, aye, the light giving, heat giving and life giv- 
ing king of our whole solar system — if all was plain- 
ly mapped out to our unaided vision in one grand, 
panoramic perspective, astronomy would be a very 
easy study indeed. But then if such were true we 
might, in a measure, be made unhappy and devote 
too much time away from our earthly affairs. In 
that event, also, some of our enterprising capitalists 
might be seeking investments, up there. 

But God has so arranged that the inventive power 
of man should be applied, and by the ingenious con- 
struction of a transparent commercial substance 
called glass has and is accomplishing wonders. 
The atmosphere. The minute particles in the atmos- 
phere obstruct the eye so that on a cloudless night 
we notice a perceptable difference in horizontal and 
overhead views. The latter affording the most 
pleasing effect on account of looking through the 
smallest amount of air. 

Finally, the shortness of human life, as compared 
to that of the heavenly bodies, is a great hindrance. 

Let me note the length of the lives of some of the 
greatest students of astronomy, viz : 

Copernicus, the first man to discover the great 

si 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

truth that the earth revolved on its axis and also 
around the sun, lived seventy years ; Galileo inven- 
tor of the telescope lived seventy-nine years ; Kep- 
ler who discovered the elliptic movements of planets 
etc., fifty-nine years ; Sir Isaac Newton who discov- 
ered the composite character of light, gravitation 
etc. and whom Dr. Ball says was the "immortal 
astronomer, the most illustrious man of science the 
world has ever produced, ' ' lived 85 years ; the two 
Herschel's, William and John, father and son, lived 
84 and 79 years respectively; Sir Wm. Huggins, 86 
years. Coming down to the present time I will men- 
tion Dr. Lewis Swift, discoverer of fifteen comets 
and more than one thousand nebulae, still living at 
the age of 91 years. I mention the foregoing list of il- 
lustrious names to show that they, although living far 
beyond the average lifetime alloted to man and hav- 
ing spent their entire lives at endeavoring to solve 
the mysteries of the heavens, (with the exceptions of 
Dr. Swift) practically "died in harness'' with their 
work unfinished and left for others in future gener- 
ations to take up and continue. Now the average 
age of these seven devotees who have accomplished 
so much in their chosen science is but a little over 
seventy-five years, which we think is old. 

82 



SOME HFXDRAXCES IX THE STUDY OF ASTRONOMY. 

What do we find in the life of a star? Its exist- 
ence is so immeasurably long that there can be no 
comparison. We see a meteor shoot across the sky 
and disappear, whence it came Ave know not. Its 
real life appeared to us to last but a moment yet it 
must have existed somewhere through aeons of 
time. We see a supposed fixed star flash up and in 
a few months, by degrees, pass from our vision en- 
tirely. Whether it really passed out of existence or 
simply lost its lustre and became a dead star Ave can 
not tell. Hoav long the sun has existed up to the 
present time we can only estimate, but a scientist 
has A^entured to say that it can shine but eight mil- 
lion of years longer. Thus Ave see humans liA T e and 
die ; nations spring up and after a few thousand 
years go doAvn yet the life of a star goes on, and on 
and on through millions, billions, trillions etc. etc. of 
years AA 7 ithout many changes, and the only compari- 
son Ave can find is the life of the SOUL WHICH IS 
ETERNAL. 



s:? 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE OPERA GLASS AND SMALL 
TELESCOPE IN ASTRONOMY. 

To the amateur or unprofessional astronomer the 
ordinary opera or field glass is a most valuable aid. 
The scope of this chapter will be to explain the im- 
portance of and advise the more frequent use of 
these instruments which can be had at small cost 
and are within reach of people of ordinary means. 
First of importance the opera glass is so easy to 
handle on account of its lightness and easiness to 
get the focus on the object. Time is often of prime 
importance when trying to catch a passing meteor, 
or get a quick view of an important heavenly body 
before a cloud or other obstruction obscures it. The 
opera glass is next in importance after naked eye 
vision, and being binocular, or used with both eyes, 
a large field can be seen. An opera of ten or fifteen 
diameters while aiding the vision perceptibly will 
take in almost as large an expanse of the sky as the 
naked eye without impairing or tiring the eye- 
sight and is a great pleasure to the observer. 

Often I have seen objects with the opera, distinct- 
ly in the darkness which could not be seen with the 
unaided eye. Such is the condensing of light within 

84 



THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TELESCOPE IX ASTRONOMY. 

the field of vision. As a finder the opera is an es- 
sential adjunct. Where we want to hastily locate 
an object which our eyes do not make quite sure, the 
convenient opera finds it. A comet looks admirable 
through an opera and creates a desire to employ a 
higher power. 

The small portable telescope comes next in con- 
venience, usefulness and results attained. The sizes 
which have an object glass of from one to three 
inches in diameter are most easilv handled, when 
a tripod is attached. There are some telescopes in 
existence with a diameter as much as five inches 
which are portable, but the inconvenience in hand- 
ling are so great as to not be recommended for use 
by the unprofessional. 

The little telescopes in the hands of Galileo and 
Newton accomplished the most important discover- 
ies in the heavens in their day. The telescope of 
Newton bore the modest dimension of one inch in 
diameter. Yet all of his wonderful discoveries were 
made by it. We have no knowledge of the exact 
diameter of the Galilean telescope, the first ever con- 
structed, and which must have been very diminutive 
in size and power. Yet through his little instrument 
he claimed he could see ten times as many stars as 

85 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

with his naked eye. But the greatest discovery by 
this early machine was the detection of the system 
of four satellites of Jupiter. 

Later, several asteroids were discovered by an 
Englishman with a small two inch telescope. More 
•comets have been first seen through small telescopes 
than through large ones. Truly the possibilities of 
the small telescope are still so important that all 
the great observatories have them attached to the 
large instruments and use them as "finders.' In 
fact, in this respect, they are almost indispensible 
as a time saver in locating an object. Again the 
small telescope can be used to fairly good advantage 
in any climate and in any locality. With a reason- 
able amount of care to prevent breakage an opera 
glass or small telescope will last for generations — 
the only wear about them is in handling. 

The item of cost is so small compared to the 
pleasure and information attained that many more 
people should own them. 

Besides the views of the sky objects the opera 
glass and small telescope serves many useful ways 
on earthly objects. The surveyor finds the small 
telescope an indispensible adjunct to his field work. 



86 



THE ASTEROIDS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
THE ASTEROIDS. 

The Asteroids, or little planets, are invisible to the 
naked eye, and are seen only through the telescopes, 
except Vesta, when in opposition, when it appears 
as a star of the 6th magnitude and under very favor- 
able atmospheric conditions may be seen by the un- 
aided eve, when vou know where to find it. 

Their period of orbital revolution around the sun 
varies from three to nine vears, the more remote 
taking longest. They occupy a space between the 
orbits of Mars and Jupiter and have a mean dis- 
tance from the sun of 290 millions of miles. 

The first asteroid discovered Avas on January 1st, 
1801, bv the Italian astronomer Piazza, in the con- 

7 «/ 7 

stellation Taurus. 

Nearly two hundred years previously and before 
the discovery of Uranus by Herschel, Kepler had 
calculated the existence of a new planet in the re- 
gion where the asteroids have since been found, so 
that it was no surprise to the astronomers when 
Ceres the first was found. But in March 1802. Gi- 
bers discovered another little planet and named it 
Pallas. Both were small, having a diameter of only 
a few hundred miles. In 1801 a third planet, Juno. 

87 



LOOKING SKYWAR]). 



was added to the list by Harding. A fourth was 
found by Olbers in 1807. This was called Vesta, the 
orbit of which was calculated by Gauss, the German 
astronomer. 



J&kL 



bL33. 




Showing the Belt of Asteroids. 

This made four small planets discovered in the 
early part of the 19th century, where, between the 



THE ASTEROIDS. 

orbits of Mars and. Jupiter, so many astronomers 
had calculated and searched for so manv vears, and 
their efforts were crowned with success at last. All 
revolved around the sun in the same direction from 
west to east and practically with the same inclina- 
tion to the ecliptic. 

The four planets having been found another diffi- 
culty came up — that of tracing them in their orbits. 
They were so small and telescopic instruments so 
imperfect that it was a task to follow them among 
the numerous small fixed stars. The next work was 
to make maps of all the stars down to the 9th 
magnitude within the zone followed by the asteroids. 
This was undertaken by Harding and others, when 
it became easier to follow them, afterwards. 

But further discoveries of new asteroids did not 
take place until 18-15. Then a Prussian ex-post- 
master, of Driessen, named Hencke, after fifteen 
years of search detected another and named it 
Astraea. It was found to be of the 11th magnitude, 
and much smaller than either of the first four. 
After this, discoveries of new ones came rapidly so 
that at the end of the year 1900 the number found 
had reached 458. Many of the latter were found by 
photography. But the limit was not yet reached. 

89 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

According to Popular Astronomy the enormous 
number of 674 had been discovered by the end of 
1908. Later reports make over 800. All of the lat- 
ter were found by photography and many of them 
so small that their diameters are estimated as low 
as from five to fifteen miles. And it is supposed that 
the end is not yet, and that thousands — one writer 
says millions — exist. 

Now, Eros, is most remarkable of any vet dis- 
covered. It was found by Dr. G. Witt, of Berlin, in 
1898. Its number in the list of discoverv is 433, but 
its orbit is nearly at right angles to the orbits of the 
other asteroids, making it approach nearer to the 
earth than any other heavenly body, except the moon, 
periodically. The next nearest approach to the earth 
will be in 1931. Another very remarkable thing about 
Eros is that it changes in brightness at different peri- 
ods in its orbit. Dr. Lowell assigns these variations of 
light to probably be caused by its revolutions on its 
axis and that "the body is not a sphere but a jagged 
mass, a mountain alone in space and that as it turns 
on its axis first one corner and then another is 
turned to our view." Several others of these little 
planets are noticed to present the same changes, and 
in all probability are governed by the same causes. 

90 



THE ASTEROIDS. 

Now the asteroids are all found in a belt around the 
sun. This belt is located within the orbits of Mars 
and Jupiter as previously stated and is about 300 
million miles in width, and the asteroids are found 
scattered all around this belt but are most numerous 
in the region where the first four are located — a sig- 
nificant fact, to be noticed later. Let us now con- 
sider the probable cause of them — what produced 
them. Lowell savs, "mammoth meteorites thev un- 
undoubtedly are.' Flammarion savs, "these 
minute asters, or little worlds are fragments of cos- 
mic matter that once belonged to a vast ring formed 
at a time when the solar system was only an im- 
mense nebula ; and which instead of condensing into 
a single globe, split up into a considerable number of 
particles constituting at the present time the highly 
interesting Republic of Asteroids.". This is some- 
what after the manner which some modern astron- 
omers think thev can detect an under a'oino- trans- 
formation within the rings of Saturn, in recent 
years. Other theories have been mentioned. Two 
planets may have collided while going in opposite 
directions, or one may have exploded. In fact, all is 
but speculation, theorism. 

Dr. W. H. M. Olbers, German astronomer — 1758- 

91 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

1840,who discovered the second planet, Pallas, was 
the first to advance the theory of explosion and 
which has never yet been satisfactorily proven to 1>< j 
fallacious. So let us go back and assume that this 
first thought was the true cause — the great catastro- 
phe. 

Let us imagine a large planet revolving in space 
between Mars and Jupiter. Now let us assume fur- 
ther that this planet was situated within the so 
called "life zone" — that is, at a distance from the 
sun wherein it is possible for life to be found, such 
as is known to exist on the earth and probably does 
exist on Venus and, according to late discoveries of 
air, water and canals on Mars, most likely life is in 
existence there. So let us sum up a few facts, viz : 
1st. The asteroids, so far as discovered, all revolve 
in the same direction around the sun. 2nd. They 
are more numerous in the region where the first 
four were found. 3rd. They do not all move in the 
same plane, but some of them widely differ. 4th. 
They are doubtless, not spherical in form but jagged 
and uneven, from the fact that many of them change 
in brightness. Four arguments in favor of explo- 
sion. 

Now let us enter the realms of imagination (with 

02 



THE ASTEROIDS. 

good reasons) and call this great planet Olbers from 
the originator of the idea of an exploded planet hav- 
ing formerly existed in the same region now oc- 
cupied by the present asteroids. And it would but 
be doing justice to his memory to thus name it. 
Now let us imagine this great primordial planet to 
have been thrown off or evoluted, from the original 
nebula of our solar system, in the same manner that 
Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and later Jupiter had been 
evoluted. As ages rolled by this cosmic matter — 
this Olbers world to be — began or continued to re- 
volve about the parent nebula in an orbit of its 
own. Then, after contracting measurably, a new mo- 
tion started, that of revolving on its axis. Then 
davs and seasons were formed. After aeons 
and aeons of time had passed and conditions had 
gone on steadily but surely and the temperature de- 
creased enough, a solid crust began to form on Ol- 
bers. Having previously shown of his own light. 
Olbers now assumed the borrowed light of the con- 
tracting but still living parent nebula. This crust 
aforesaid, began to form at the poles and after more 
aeons of time the cooling crust had reached the 
equator of Olbers. Air and water and heat having 
begun to separate from the chaotic mass. God the 

93 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

creator, placed animal life on the partly solid sur- 
face — first at the poles, and in the form of the low- 
est order — protozoa. Thence ' ' after inferior creatures 
mute' came animals more advanced in creative 
order along with plant life. Age continued to suc- 
ceed age in animal and plant life on Olbers, whose 
outer crust was succeeded by other lavers of decaved 
animal and plant remains. As Olbers grew cooler 
and the fires of his interior receded farther from the 
surface in order to free the confined gases, etc. great 
fissures were made on his surface and great con- 
vulsions took place — the fissures formed great moun- 
tain ranges on the planet while the convulsions en- 
gulfed the great forests and coal and oil and min- 
eral beds were formed. Sometime during the suc- 
ceeding ages of Olbers the great animals (vertibrates ) 
and man appeared. Man, of course took the lead 
and led and was boss there, as afterwards has been 
shown to be the case on earth. All this time Olbers 
was forming into a beautiful world, with all the 
seasons, the rivers, the mountains, seas and oceans, 
plains and valleys which God so bountifully sup- 
plied the earth with afterwards. Olbers was a 
world exquisively charming, a paradise. Beautiful 
sun-rises and sun-sets were there to be viewed and 

!I4 



THE ASTEROIDS. 

described in verse and song by the Olbersian poets. 
Man, as previously stated, was the head animal 
and boss of all that pertained to the planet 
just as his likenessses are now ruling the younger 
earth. He became wise in the arts and sciences. 
Education was a great uplift to him there, but the 
control and OAvnership of land and gold — in other 
words greed — were the great bane of his existance 
on lovely Olbers. Wars came, in consequence. All 
other animals having previously been subdued, man 
fought and murdered man. Man's inhumanity to 
man was carried out to perfection. Nations clashed, as 
population increased and internal dissentions broke 
out. In the meantime great advancements had been 
made in some nations in wisdom — knowledge. Im- 
provements in the arts and sciences became the 
V wonders of the age' as the planet grew in age, 
just as is being done on the earth. Motive powers 
of animals, steam, compressed air. electricity, ozone 
from the air, etc., etc., succeeded each other in rapid 
succession as great aids to the pleasures and whims 
of the proud Olbersians ! 

Now, these people who were similar in size and 
appearance as our own peoples, (in fact, they may 
have been our predecessors in the spirit!) were 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

also wonderfully inventive. Their modes of travel 
on the surface of the planet were exceedingly similar 
to ours on earth. But later, as time rolled on and 
each generation became wiser, they discarded all 
modes of travel and communication except the air 
methods. Some inventive genius had devised a way 
to overcome gravitation at will ! Then it was easy to 
go about on Olbers ! 

But now age was beginning to show on the life of 
the planet. The climax had been reached. His people 
had lived ages and ages in periods of alternate wars, 
happiness, greed, pleasures, etc., etc. As the popula- 
tion increased the natural resources were being con- 
sumed, wasted and exhausted. The water was going 
somewhere — disappearing. The same fact was no- 
ticeable with the air— a la Mars at the present time. 
The heat also was growing less. The poles had long 
since been regions of ice — death — and life was 
crowding towards the equator. The four great poli- 
tical divisions of Olbers were at war with each other 
over the remaining life-sustaining necessities. The 
inhabitants had exhausted the coal mines and oil 
supplies of the interior of Olbers. In order to get 
more heat they were digging and drilling deeper and 
deeper into the planet's interior. It became a mat- 

m (3) 



THE ASTEROIDS. 

ter of life for a while longer or death by freezing 
and starvation. Each of the four nations were striv- 
ing to outdo the other by going deeper and deeper 
in search of those remaining necessities of life, when 
in an unguarded moment too many high explosions 
were ignited and Olbers was no more! 

Thus came into existence M. Flammarion's "Re- 
public of the Asteroids"! Will the inhabitants of 
earth take warning and conserve our natural re- 
sources and prolong life on our planet, or will they 
also convert it into asteriods? 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE WEATHER AND ASTRONOMY. 

Wind is air in motion. Air in motion is partly 
caused by the rising of heat. Heat, being lighter 
than air rises, creating a vacuum, and cold air 
rushes in to fill the place vacated by the heat, hence 
the wind. 

The gentlest and balmiest zephyr of a lovely June 
day is brought about in part by the rising of heat 
over a scope of the earth's surface; likewise is pro- 
duced the most terrible hurricane which brings 
death and destruction to everything in its path. The 
difference is the slowness or suddenness in the rising 
of heat — the slowness brings about the gentle breeze 
and the rapidly rising heat produces the deadly and 
destructive tornado. Again, the larger the territory 
over which heat arises the more continued the gen- 
tle breeze or the more destructive and the greater the 
duration of the storm. Now, what causes the heat to 
rise ? It was previously stated that it was because of 
being lighter than cold air, which is true, but there is 
another force which undoubtedly plays an active if 
not a principal part in getting the air in motion and 
that is attraction from without the confines of the 
earth. For centuries, long before the invention of 

us 



THE WEATHER AND ASTRONOMY. 




From Popular Astonomy 
Saturn. 



the telescope, it was noticed that the sun and the 
moon had great attractive or drawing power on the 
waters of the oceans and all other large bodies of 
water on the earth in causing what is called the 
tides to ebb and flow. [Scientists are now endeavor- 
ing to prove that the earth itself is often drawn 
out of its natural shape by the wonderful attractive 
power of the sun.] Most of the older readers of 
this book can remember how their parents told them 
how they foretold the weather by the changes of the 
moon, showing that they then believed in what 

an 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

science is now proving to be facts — that the attrac- 
tive power of the sun and moon are mighty forces 
which produces our weather, to a very great extent. 

Now. since the waters of the oceans and, also, 
the earth itself are drawn out of shape, so dense as 
they are. why is not the atmosphere which surrounds 
the earth affected in a like manner, since it is so 
much less dense and lighter? 

Now, this great attractive power of those two 
heavenly bodies, by their force draws the heat from 
the surface of the earth because it is lighter than 
cold air, and as stated before, the cold air rushes in 
to fill the vacuum, causing the gentle breezes or the 
hurricanes. 

These two great forces, the rising of heat and at- 
traction from without the atmosphere are in all prob- 
ability the principal causes of the changes in the 
earthly air currents, but there are still other causes. 

The rushing of a railroad train and the falling 
of an avalanch are readily known to be local causes. 
It is not yet proven, but there is reason to believe, 
that the revolution of the earth on its axis plays an 
interesting part in agitating the atmosphere, revolv- 
ing as it does at the rate of nearly seventeen miles 
per minute. 

100 



THE WEATHER AND ASTRONOMY. 




From drawing. 
Jupiter, showing two moons in transit. 

Again, it is an old established fact that the au- 
tumnal and vernal equinoxes bring such atmospheric 
changes as to produce rains, high winds and destruc- 
tive storms. These are doubtless caused bv the 
changes in the length of days and nights. Now it is 
plain that if the days and nights would always re- 
main of equal lengths the "equinoctial storms' 
would not occur, and that they do take place from the 
changes in positions of the earth which are brought 
about by the action of the attractive power of the sun. 
in causing the earth to revolve about it. Thus the 

101 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

power comes from without the earth in this instance 
also. Another physical fact is that if the atmosphere 
would always remain calm there would be no rainfall 
or storms. It is agitation — the rising of heat and in- 
rushing of cold air, the attraction from without the 
earthly confines, all of which operate in the forma- 
tion of air currents and through the agency of those 
movements what we call ''weather' is eventually 
produced. 

Many astronomers of the past century have found 
out that there are other great forces in the heavens 
besides the sun and the moon which produce these 
changes in the temperature of the air and produce 
rain or droughts, as the case may be. Leverrier. 
Young, Proctor, Loomis, Langley and many others 
have, along with many living astronomers, advocated 
the theorv that each orb of the Avhole solar svstem 
attracts each other and that the sun is the great 
central dynamo, which rules them all. 

After the sun and moon's attractive power on the 
earth's atmosphere, the giant planets Jupiter and 
Saturn, sometimes called the lesser suns of our 
solar system, come next in importance on account 
of their immense size. Jupiter is twelve hundred 
times larger than the earth and Saturn, exclusive of 

102 



THE WEATHER AXD ASTROXOMY. 

his rings, is over seven hundred times larger. It 
must also be borne in mind that besides the main 
body of Jupiter he has a great system of eight 
satellites, some of them larger than our moon ; also 
Saturn has a great ring system and moon system 
combined. It is conceded that the rings consist of 
myriads of little moons revolving about the great 
planet in a compact mass, and in the same plane, and 
that the larger moons, ten in number, revolve about 
in separate orbits. Now both of these huge planets 
together with their wonderful aggregation of rings 
and satellites, most assuredlv exert no little attrac- 
tive power on other bodies in the family of world's 
surrounding them, since thev are known to attract 
each other in their respective orbits, and all in like 
manner are under the mastery of the great central 
orb. the sun. 

It is noticed that when those two great orbs are 
on the same side of the sun with the earth, and in 
line with the sun and the earth, great changes of tem- 
perature in the atmosphere of the earth occurs and 
rainfall and storms follow. Such is true with the 
lesser planets when a sufficient number of them get 
in line on the same side of the sun. and of these, 
Mars, though much smaller than the earth, but 

103 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

our next outer neighbor, and Venus, our inner neigh- 
bor, are known to greatly disturb our atmosphere 
when in conjunction or at the nearest approach to us. 

These phenomenal changes also happen when any 
planet arrives at its nearest point to the earth, or 
inferior conjunction. It is noticed also that when a 
planet is farthest away from the earth on the op- 
posite side of the sun, and called, in superior con- 
junction, that particular planet has the least influ- 
ence upon the earth and its atmosphere. 

The pull of the planets on the earth's atmosphere, 
in those instances, is not only noticeable, but the 
crust of the earth must be influenced by the great 
force of attraction as earthquakes and volcanic 
eruptions are frequently known to take place at 
these particular periods. 

Now, it is known that the planets revolve about 
the sun at regular periods and that their orbits are 
traceable with great exactness with the fixed stars 
as a background. It is also true that the planetary 
orbits can be traced many years ahead, yea, hun- 
dreds and thousands of years ahead. The same is 
true in calculating their past orbits for an unlimited 
number of years with a fair degree of accuracy. 
The greatest difficulty appears to be in correctly 

104 



THE WEATHER AXD ASTRONOMY. 

establishing the retrogrades and side pulls of other 
heavenly bodies when in conjunction or when an 
unexpected comet is encountered, as comets surely 
perform their attractive capacity in proportion to 
their volume and distance. 

The foregoing being true, what is to hinder the 
conjunctions of the other bodies, besides the well- 
known power of the sun and moon, from having a 
distinct bearing on and perceptably affecting our 
climate? It is also known that the attractive power 
of the sun goes far beyond our farthest planet. This 
planet also pulls away from the sun, or it would rush 
down to it. We see two forces in action everywhere 
in the solar system, a force drawing toward and a 
force pulling from the central body. 

Now it is most reasonable that the particles of 
matter on each body, which is the lightest and the 
least susceptible to the action of gravity, such as air 
and water and heat, would be acted upon first and 
the most. Hence it is seen that this mobility of the 
atmosphere, which we see going on constantly on the 
earth, is largely governed by the attractive power 
from without. So if our meteorologists would be 
guided more by the motions of other bodies than the 
earth their task in predicting climatic changes would 

105 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

be a much easier and more reliable matter; and in- 
stead of foretelling weather changes for a few hours 
ahead, as they do now, they could predict with con- 
siderable accuracy for years to come. 

But these meteorologists say that the "distance 
between the earth and the other planets is too great 
to have any perceptible effect on our atmosphere.' 
But they forget the mighty power of attraction which 
is known and conceded to prevail everywhere in the 
solar system. They also fail to notice that this great 
force operates in practically a vacuum where there 
is no resisting element to interfere, thus in a great 
measure annihilating distance. If there was such 
a resisting element, as air is known to be, between all 
the bodies of the solar system, results might be dif- 
ferent and good ground could be produced for the 
argument of distance interfering. 

Now, also, do the fixed stars have anything to do 
with the weather on the earth ] Yes ! The sun is a 
fixed star, a fact conceded by all, though its dis- 
tance is but 93 millions of miles from us. Now, it is 
estimated by the telescope and camera that there are 
in existence in the universe in round number 300 
millions of fixed stars, and each of these is a sun of a 
separate solar system. Ought not the combined in- 

106 



THE WEATHER AND ASTRONOMY. 

fluence of these countless orbs, though immensely 
vast is their distance, have much to do with our 
weather when it is known that our own little sun has 
so much to do? "Too far and too scattered,' 1 says 
one. But if they were all made into one sun, the 
effect might be more noticeable to us, but would the 
results be any different? 

In summing up we find that the starry heavens 
rule our weather, to a perceptible degree, and that 
the weather makes our crops of vegetation, etc., upon 
which we sustain life, on this earth ; and back of all 
we see the handiwork and guiding power of the 
Creator — of Almighty God. 



10i 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

CHAPTER XL 

COMETS. 
"What problems they propound to us, when, as in some 
beautiful display of pyrotechnics the arch of Heaven is 
illuminated with their fantastic light." — Flammarion. 

The name is from the Greek" coma," meaning long- 
haired. 

These objects have been seen and known to exist 
as far back as human history is recorded, and have 
been viewed with superstitious awe and consterna- 
tion — much more so in early times than at present. 
There are not many people of the present time, even, 




Showing the three kinds of orbits of comets — the outer being 
an hyperbola, the middle parabola, and the inner an ellipse. 

108 



COMETS. 

but what are anxious to a high degree, to see a comet 
when it is foretold to appear as a naked eye exhibi- 
tion, in the morning or evening sky ; but as the peo- 
ple are becoming educated and enlightened up to a 
knowledge of what they are made of and what causes 
their appearance, the superstitious appendage is dis- 
appearing. 

Their numbers are great, numbering into the thou- 
sands, according to the best astronomers. But when 
seen about their perihelion they have sometimes been 
seen to change form and appearance to such a degree 
that one is led to surmise that the same comet has 
been frequently viewed as a new one. They might 
not only change in form, but change in orbit. The 
one feature is as likely to occur as another, since they 
are only seen when near the sun. 

Schiaparela thought that he could see a similarity 
between comets and meteors and hence he concluded 
that their origin was from the same source. 

Comet's orbits are either ellipses, parabolas or 
hyperbolas (see diagram), with the first named pre- 
dominating. Those with elliptic orbits are calculated 
with some degree of precision as to time, distance 
and direction, but the parabolas and hyperbolas are 
not. Comets are called, sometimes, "vagrants," 

]0!) 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 




Coggi's Comet, showing what wonderful forms some comets 

assume. 



110 



COMETS. 

"wanderers, 1 "hoboes,' as they approach the sun 

from almost all directions. Thev are also called 

members of our solar system from the fact that they 

are attracted by our great luminary, the sun. Some 

astronomers have noted them as ' ■ worlds undergoing 

construction." The spectroscope proves that they 
have within themselves practically the same elements 
as those which are found in the spectrum of the 
sun. It is also believed that they are largely com- 
posed of gases, and gases are made out of solids, and 
that they shine by light of their own production. 

New comets are being discovered frequently. 
Their sizes vary greatly, from a few hundred to more 
than a million of miles in diameter. The writer had 
the luck to find tAvo comets, one in September, 1886, in 
Cassiopia, with a rapid motion, north-eastward. An- 
other, and smaller one. was seen in Cassiopia also, in 
September, 1890, with movement in the same direc- 
tion as the first. Further data concerning them 
whs not kept. 

Tt is noticed that when comets approach perihelion 
they acquire tails. Many are seen to almost become 
deprived of their tails during the period of nearesl 
approach to the sun and again tails to be acquired 

111 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

when receding and finally lost entirely when the dis- 
tance from the sun becomes too great. 

Now, it is my opinion that the tails are secured 
from two causes : First, from increased speed as the 
approach to the sun increases, and, second, from the 
passage of the comet through the rarified element 
which is known to surround the sun to a distance of 
many millions of miles and which becomes more 
dense as the great luminary is approached. This 
element, being slightly luminous, produces the hairy- 
like tail of the comet, which is invariably projected 
out from the sun whether the comet is approaching 
or going from the sun, in its orbit. 

To more perceptibly substantiate this idea, it is 
known that during the perihelion approach all com- 
ets have a forward projection as well as a rear pro 
jection from the envelope of the comet's nucleous. 
But the so-called tail projection is the most notice- 
able to us from causes not yet clearly defined by the 
astronomers of modern times, and many different 
opinions have been produced in regard to these 
caudal appendages of the comets. 



112 



HALLEY'S COMET. 

CHAPTER XII. 

HALLEY'S COMET. 
(After Edmond Halley, avIio first calculated its true orbit.) 

On the 12th of September, 1909, Professor Wolf 
of Heidleberg, Germany, bore the distinction of be- 
ing the first man to sight Halley 's famous comet in 
Orion, on its recent return to the perihelion of its 
orbit. Soon after this announcement every large 
telescope in the world sighted it and afterward 
nearly every class and condition of people gave it 
their attention, even before it became visible to the 
naked eye. 

This great comet has probably a more famous his- 
torv than anv other similar bodv in the history of 
the human race. Its history has been traced back to 
before the coming of Christ and Biblical lore gives 
it as the ''miraculous star that guided the Magi to 
Bethlehem, to the infant Jesus.' Matthew 11-9. 
Since then it has been called the "Star of Bethle- 
hem" by manv historians. 

AVhen first seen by the telescopes, and lief ore ac- 
quiring a tail it was described as a "luminous fuzzy 
mass," and has been variously estimated in size 
around one million times bigger than the earth. The 
comet being first seen in the western sky. continued 

113 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

to be a telescopic object only until it passed its 
perihelion, or nearest approach to the sun, which 
occurred on April 18th, 1910, and a few days later 
became an interesting object in the eastern sky, just 
before sunrise, and north of the sun in the const ella- 




The path of Halley's Comet at perlielion approach, 1909-1910. 



114 



H ALLEY'S COMET. 

tion Pisces, and was watched with increasing interest 
by the whole civilized world, when the sky was clear, 
and other conditions favorable. 

The greatest length of its tail, when noted by the 
the writer, was on the mornings of the 18th and 
19th of May, just before sunrise, when its length 
could be traced from the horizon in the northeast to 
bevond the zenith in the southwest, a distance of 
more than 90 degrees. This was when the comet was 
at its best and most interesting to naked eye viewers, 
who were early risers. The comet passed near the 
orbit of the earth on May 18th, was then at its near- 
est approach to the earth and according to astronom- 
ical calculations the distance of the comet from the 
earth was about 12 millions of miles and the earth 
passed through its tail. On May the 18th and 19th 
the whole astronomical world became confused, in 
reference to Avhich I quote the following to show the 
alarm, from the Indianapolis News, viz : 

Astronomers at Yerkes Observatory Say Tail Is in 

the East. 

Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wis., May. 19. 
— Shattering all scientific calculations and complete- 
ly puzzling learned astronomers, who declare they 

115 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

made sure of the unprecedented phenomena with re- 
peated observations here before daybreak this morn- 
ing, the glowing tail of Halley's comet appeared in 
the eastern sky today at a time when world's comet 
authorities had agreed it would be in the west. 

Such eminent astronomers as Professor S. A. 
Mitchell, of Columbia University, New York ; Pro- 
fessor Edwin B. Frost, head of the Yerkes Observa- 
tory staff, and Professor Edward Barnard, of the 
University of Chicago, witnessed the startling fan 
of light in the east, and all agree that it was the 
comet's tail. No adequate explanation, however, was 
forthcoming. 

THREE EXPLANATIONS OFFERED. 

Professor Mitchell, Professor Frost and Professor 
Barnard said that any one of the following three ex- 
planations may be right : 

1. The curvature of the comet's tail first discov- 
ered and noted by Professor Barnard on Tuesday 
might have developed to a wholly unexpected de- 
gree, while the head of the comet has passed the 
earth on schedule. 

2. Like Borelli's comet of 1903, Hallev's comet 
may have ceased its tail-making activity, cutting off 
the glowing fan that is now puzzling the scientists. 

116 



HALLEY'S COMET. 

3. It is possible that all calculations are wrong, 
and that the comet has not yet passed the earth. 

As nearly as could be computed, the period of the 
appearance of the comet's tail in the east extended 
from 10 :38 o 'clock Wednesday nio'ht to 3 :20 o 'clock 
this morning. It was still plainly visible at a time 
when the astronomers were confident the earth would 
have passed completely through its tail. 

FACTS GREATER THAN THEORIES. 

After leaving his telescope at daybreak, Professor 
Frost issued the following statement: "Greater than 
all the theories and all the computations are the 
facts. And the fact is that the tail of Halley's comet, 
has been appearing in the east in practically tnc 
same position as it appeared yesterday morning. 
There is no question about that. The tail which 
glowed from the horizon close to the milky way 
from before midnight until dawn has not yet passed 
across the earth. That is a certainty. In addition, 
it is also certain that there is no material diminution 
in the size of this tail as compared with the tail o 
the day before. 

"We are confident that the calculations for the 
passage of the head of the comet between the sun 
and the earth are correct. Unquestioned astronom- 

117 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

ical authorities, working independently of eacli 
other, in all parts of the world, arrived at these 
calculations, which have been correct in detail ever 
since the comet passed Venus on May 2. 

After passing the path of the earth the comet 
again became an exciting curiosity in the western 
sky in the evening. First appearing after sunset and 
for a few days increasing in brightness and increas- 
ing length of tail, which had shortened, then gradu- 
ally diminishing in lustre and shortening of tail as 
it sped on its course toward the southeast, until it 
disappeared from naked eye view during the last 
days of June, 1910. 

The orbit of Halley's is elliptical and extends to 
500 millions of miles beyond Neptune, and complet- 
ing the round trip of 6 billion 400 million of miles 
and consuming about 75 of our years to make one 
year of its time around the sun. 

It is fair to believe, as Dr. Frederick Campbell as- 
serts, that at some future visit of this comet it might 
possibly be drawn out of its orbit enough to envelope 
the earth and smother all of its inhabitants! When 
the comet was on its last trip about 75 years ago, 
modern mathematics have estimated that it came 
within six millions of miles of hitting the earth witli 
its nucleus, and this time it really hit our earth with 

118 



HALLEYS COMET. 

its tail, thus proving that it does not always follow 
the same orbit, and is greatly attracted by the pull 
of the earth. Hence, there is sufficient foundation 
to believe that such a calamity might occur. 

On the morning of May 19, 1910, before the ap- 
proaching twilight interfered, the writer witnessed 
the tail of the comet extend from the horizon in the 
northeast to several degrees past the zenith in the 
southwest. The nucleus was not seen. Now this 
light grew more faint as the eye traced it to the 
southwest, and it resembled the comet's tail as prev- 
iously seen, and the onlv difference noted was the 
great increase in length and width at the end 
farthest from the nucleus. It could not have been 
the zodiacal light, as it is never known to extend 
so far away (about 30 degrees) from the sun and is 
broad at the horizon, while the narrowest point in 
a comet's tail is at the nucleus. 

Now, at 11 o'clock A. M. of the same day (May 
19th). while the sky was perfectly free of clouds, 
three persons, located at a point five miles north of 
Liberty, Ind., witnessed a wonderful obscuration of 
the sunlight. Those people described it as circular 
in form, and appeared to approach the sun from the 

no 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

southeast and passed off the sun in a north westerly 
direction. Some of the prismatic colors were noticed 
and the outlines of the sun could be plainly seen 
through it without hurting the eyes. But when the 
obstruction started to pass off the line of demarka- 
tion between it and the full sunlight was sharp. The 
resemblance Avas much like an ordinary eclipse of 
the sun with obscuration less great, The duration of 
this extraordinary occurrance was about 30 minutes. 
Noaa% this same unusual object AA T as seen at and 
around the great Yerkes obseiwatory at AVilliams 
Bay, Wis. The A'enerable Dr. E. E. Barnard writes 
as folloAA T s in reference to it: "We do not knoAA T that 
the phenomenon had any connection AA T ith the close 
approach of Halley's comet at that time, but the 
accumulation of such data as you send (I having 
informed him) may help to soh r e the problem.' 

Now, the obserA^ers through the great telescopes 
claim that the comet really appeared on time as pre- 
dicted in the AA T estern skA T on the 18th of Mav, but 
minus most of its tail ! That being receiA r ed as the 
true case, it is the opinion of the writer that the 
object seen to pass OA T er the sun AA*as truly the tail 
of the comet near its extreme end, and that the pre- 
vailing conditions of the atmosphere made the tail 

120 



HALLEY'S COMET. 

appear detached from the head when it appeared in 
the western sky. 

Atmospheric Conditions During the Passing on the 

Comet. 

The enormous precipitation of snow on February 
the 17th, followed by more than six weeks of warm, 
dry weather, during which the rainfall was but a 
small fraction of one inch ; this drought ended on the 
19th of April, just after the comet had passed the 
perihelion point or nearest approach to the sun. 
During this drought the temperature became warm 
and summer-like. For manv davs the thermometer 
registered in the eighties and all vegetation was a- 
bloom and growing thriftily. Most leaves of trees 
were in full size. Fruits of most varieties, in this 
latitude (that of Indianapolis. Ind.) were past the 
bloom stage and growing splendidly. It was a com- 
mon remark that a finer, earlier and more abundant 
crop of fruit in prospect had never been seen before. 
But on the night of the 18th of April a heavy, warm 
rain started, which on the day following turned to 
snow. Snow fell all of the 19th and the cold so in- 
creased by night, and the temperature lowered so 
much thai a hard freeze came, and the 20th of April. 

121 



L()f)KIX(; SKYWARD 




■ ■^SMMp- 



Photo by J. H. Davis. 
Street Scene. Liberty, Indiana. 
Snow 24 inches deep. 



122 



HALLEY'S COMET. 

1910, will long be remembered as a day of desolation, 
when the beautiful scene of two days previous was 
practically all changed to scenes of death. But the 
coldness did not stop here. There was a succession 
of frosts by night and warmer at noons, with light 
precipitations of snows or rains all through the 
month of May and it was June 12th, 1910, before 
overcoats were discharded and fires let go out. Now, 
briefly, a territory about 100 miles wide is traceable 
across several states, beginning in Southern Ohio and 
taking a northwestern course across Central Indiana, 
Northern Illinois, into Wisconsin and Minnesota, in 
which the weather was unusuallv mild in March and 
ap to the 19 th of April (our usually stormy months), 
1910. After the latter date and until the 12th of 
June, 1910, we had just the reverse to the customary 
weather of those months — freezing, stormy, etc., etc. 
This same course across the above named states was 
taken by the obscuration of the sun on May 19th. 
aforesaid. Hence, Ave conclude that as Halley's 
comet approached perihelion it inflamed the sun to 
such a degree as to bring about our unusual weather 
conditions just mentioned. Then on the 19th of 
April, when the comet had rounded the perihelion 
point and turned from the sun toward the earth our 

12:? 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 




Snow Storm. April 19, 1910. 
Trees in full leaf, fruit killed. 



124 



HALLEY'S COMET. 

coldness came about, with the previously named con- 
ditions resulting. 

Now, I do not claim that the above statement is 
positive proof that the recent passing of the great 
comet affected our weather as stated, but there is 
certainly reason to believe that the comet actually 
did produce those remarkable weather conditions. 

Again, the testimony of aged people still living 
(October, 1910) who saAv this same comet on its last 
previous visit to us — these people tell us that the 
weather conditions, during both cometic events, were 
remarkably coincidental, and it is hoped that if this 
trip has not, future returns of this "hobo'' will leave 
the earthly inhabitants wiser. 

Yet, it is the concensus of opinion of quite all 
astronomers that comets are principally composed 
of gases, hence let us look into the definition of 
gases. Silliman says: "Gases are elastic fluids, aeri- 
form, transparent, and usually colorless and invisi- 
ble." And further he says "expansion is the most 
characteristic property of gases." 

Now, is it not fair reasoning to say that Halley "s 
comet, being composed of gases, and "transparent 
and invisible and expansive," could have been much 
larger than it appeared to our vision — even when 

l 25 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

aided by our most powerful telescopes .' It could 
have been very many millions of miles in diameter, 
instead of about one million, the estimated figure of 
the astronomers. It is a noted fact that the borders 
of the nucleus or tail were not sharply denned at all. 
These facts being established, it is the opinion of 
the writer that Halley's comet was immeasurably 
larger than it appeared to be, and that its surround- 
ing influence was such as to affect the atmosphere of 
our earth, to a degree, as to produce the previously 
described atmospheric changes. 



iiiO 



THE NUMBEE OF STARS. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE XUAIBEB OF STABS AXD THE STUPEXDOUSXESS 

OF THE UXIVERSE. 

As countless as the sands on the sea-shore. — Old Adage. 
To the ancients, and prior to the invention of the 

telescope, the number of the stars looked immense. 

although only a few thousand, at best, could be seen 

with the unaided vision, and the most of those were 

to be seen in the Milky Way. 

But when Galileo made his modest little telescope 
(about one inch in diameter") his first discoverv 
which he made in the sky was connected with the 
great number of the stars. Galileo, says Dr. Ball, 
'"saw to his amazement that through his little tube 
he could count ten times as nianv stars in the sky 
as his unaided eye could detect." 

Now, the ancients ''entertained the erroneous be- 
lief that the stars were on the inside surface of a 
sphere,' and all at equal distance from the earth, 
so one can imagine how hard it was to believe the 
revelations of even so small a telescope when it was 
first pointed skyward. Galileo's telescope not only 
discovered great numbers of stars, but the further 
Pact that they were of unequal distances from the 
observer 

127 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

As each new and more powerful telescope was con- 
structed the number and distances of stars were 
found to greatly increase, so that the estimates of 
their numbers ran up into the millions. 

But when the great Lick telescope was first used 
the number of visible stars estimated through that 
powerful instrument was placed at twenty millions. 
When the Yerkes and other more powerful machines 
came into use the calculations ran up to around one 
hundred millions in number. But this was not vet 

• 

to be the limit, for photography was added. When 
the most powerful telescope was placed to a part of 
the sky where no stars could be seen, and the camera 
and driving clock used for '•time exposure," the 
sensitive plate, after being developed, revealed many 
new stai's. This was another great advance in the 
science of astronomy, as has since been proven by 
later discoveries. Now this additional aid being 
brought forward, a calculator began new computa- 
tions by counting the number of stars in a given 
square and multiplying the number in this square by 
the same number in forty thousand other squares, the 
number of squares in the whole surrounding firma- 
men, with the stupendous result that the camera dis- 
covered two hundred millions of stars in addition. 

12S (4) 



THE NUMBER OF STARS. 

making in all three hundred millions of stars as a 
grand total of the number of fixed stars to be found 
by the use of the present highly developed astro- 
nomical instruments ! Now this is the number of 
fixed stars only. Each of these fixed stars is reason- 
ably well supposed to be a sun representing a sep- 
arate solar system after the model of our own. Our 
system of worlds contains nine primaries, not count- 
ing the secondaries, and the numerous asteroids, 
meteors and comets. 

Now suppose that our solar system is an average 
in size, which is likely. Multiply three hundred mil- 
lions by nine and the quotient will be the stupendous 
number of twenty-seven hundred millions of heaven- 
ly bodies of a size which would average larger than 
the earth ! 

Now let us look at some of the distances in 
the Universe. We think it is a long way to the 
moon, our nearest heavenly body, which averages 
240,000 miles away. Yet, as Flammarion says, k 'it is 
but a step to the moon as compared to the outer 
bodies." 

Our next nearest neighbors are the planets Venus 
on the inner side and Mars on the outer side, whose 
distances when nearest to us average about 33 mil- 

129 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

lions of miles from us — jumping from thousands to 
millions at a bound. 

Now let us go on to the outer planets with Jupiter 
at 500 millions of miles from the sun ; Saturn next at 
900 millions of miles out ; then Uranus at one billion 
eight hundred and twenty-eight millions of miles 
further out ; lastly, the most outermost planet known, 
Neptune, at the enormous distance from the sun of 
more than two billion seven hundred millions of 
miles ! Let us try again : The aphelion point of 
Halley's comet is 500 million miles further still, mak- 
ing a total distance from the sun of 3 billion 200 
millions of miles. From that distance our luminary 
would not look much larger than a first magnitude 
fixed star ! 

Now, this distance, great as it is, is but half of the 
diameter of our solar system, which is. at least, then, 
six billion 400 millions of miles! 

Our solar system is doubtless even bigger than this, 
as many comets are known to have orbits much 
greater than Halley's, and the solar system must 
reach as far as the sun's attractive power goes. But, 
in conclusion, this instance of the immensity of our 
solar svstem is but one short of 300 millions of other 

« 

supposed solar systems in existence. Is not the 

130 



THE NUMBER OE STARS. 

number great? Can you comprehend it? Can you 
count the number of stars? Can you even safely 
approximate their vast distances? No! But bear in 
mind that these foregoing thoughts have not even 
penetrated the threshold — the outside limits of God's 
Country ! 



131 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A FEW PROBLEMS. 

1. 

Where is the boundary line of the solar system — 
the place where the attractive power of the sun is 
lost, and the great force is drawn toward some other 
center ¥ 

2. 
What is attraction, or gravitation, which is all pre- 
vailing among the worlds? Is it the omnipotent hand 
of God the Creator? 

3. 
Electricity is a subtle fluid. It comes with a flash 
and goes with a flash. Whence does it come and 
whither does it go ? What is it ? Is it life ? 

4. 
Where are the bounds of the Universe I Has it 
bounds? Can it be boundless? 

5. 
Which is the quickest: thought or gravitation? 
Both are said to act instantaneously. Can there be 
a difference? 

6. 
The meteors which Ave find on the earth are prin- 
cipally rough and jagged and many sbaped, but 

132 



A FEW PROBLEMS. 

weighty and solid. Are they not fragments of ex- 
ploded or collided worlds ? Could they possibly be 
thus formed from the original star-dust? 

7. 

The diurnal motion of the earth is 17 miles per 
minute, while the orbital molion is nearly 20 miles 
per second. Why is this enormous difference in 
speed? Did the earth formerly revolve faster on its 
axis and have shorter days ? Is it slowing down as it 
becomes older, and will its diurnal motion eventually 
cease entirely and present but one side to the sun 
as does the moon to the earth ? 

8. 

What is the so-called Milky Way ? Whv are its 
countless stars so densely arranged, and the balance 
of the heavens so different, and without any apparent 
order ? 

9. 

Xew stars are being discovered yet, frequently, in 
places where none have ever been known to exist. 
Are they preiodicals with long periods? Or are they 
stars so far distance that their light is just reachin.: 
us from the depths of infinity ? 

10. 

Occasionally old stars disappear from our vision. 

133 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

after a period of noticably increased brightness. 

What has become of them ? Are they, also, period- 
icals with long periods.' Or are they, as Dr. Ball 
suggests, "suns burning out' and their elements 
returning again to the primordial or gaseous nebula 
and a new solar system reproduced ; proving that 
nothing is destroyed — just an instance of trans- 
formation or evolution? 



:;• 



WASTE SPACE AXD IXFTXITY. 






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Popular Astronomy. 

CHAPTEE XV. 

WASTE SPACE AXD rXFTXITY. 

By Hon. W. L. Barnes. Charlestown, Ind.. ex-member of 
Indiana State Senate. 

To illustrate the immense amount of waste space 
between the outer member (Neptune) of the solar 
system and the nearest fixed star, imagine the above 
diagram extended 3,170 feet, or three-fifths of a 
mile away and you will just have room to mark 
Alpha Centaura (the nearest fixed star), equal to 
about 9,000 times the distance of Neptune from the 
sun! Considering the isolation of our system from 
other suns by this immense intervening depth of 

135 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

space, it does not seem probable that any comet ever 
gets entirely away from the solar system, as one 
might have an orbit with major axis equal to 4,000 
times that of Halley's comet and having a period of 
17,710,000 years, and vet the attraction of the sun 
would predominate over that of any of the nearesl 
stars or star systems. And after its lonely wandering 
through dreary space would, like the prodigal son, 
finally return to the parental embrace of our solar 
system. 

Richard A. Proctor was asked by Edward Irving 
the following, viz : ' ' Let us suppose that a man could 
reach in one second of our time the most remote star 
visible, and that he could continue on at the same 
speed in a straight line to all eternity, would he ever 
get to the end of the suns and world's? or would he 
always have as many in front of him as he had be- 
hind him?" (as a necessary consequence of the 
theory that "end there is none nor is there ye1 
beginning.") 

Mr. Proctor replied, "I fear that to this question 
there is but one answer — "We don't know. The 
infinite which necessarily is, is necessarily incom- 
prehensible." 



130 



NON-LUMINOUS BODIES OF THE SKY. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

ARE ALL NON-LUMINOUS BODIES THE GRAVEYARDS 

OF THE SKY? YES. 

The late Dr. Winchell, in his "Sketches of Crea- 
tion," said, "This earth, to which our life-long round 
of labor and care is limited by an inexorable decree, 
was once a self-luminous orb." 

iEons and a?ons of time passed and our planet be- 
came opaque, and since was a non-luminous world. 
In a sense it became a graveyard of the sky among 
other worlds, and shone only of the borrowed light 
of other bodies, principally the sun. Yet, in another 
sense it became a true graveyard also thus : "When it 
had cooled enough to form a solid crust and began 
to produce and maintain animal and plant life upon 
its surface, as each generation succeeded each gen- 
eration, the planet formed a graveyard for its own 
animal and plant creations. Such has been going 
on through succeeding crust formations in the past 
and will likely continue until it becomes like the 
moon, a dead world in fact. All fixed stars shine by 
their own light, hence they are not graveyards, but 
are Ihe living amongst the worlds. But each fixed 
star is supposed to have a number of opaque bodies 
revolving around it, so by this argument the non- 
137 



LOOKING SKY \VAR]1 

luminous or graveyards of the sky far outnumber the 
living or luminous ones several times. 

Those countless meteors which we all so frequently 
see shooting through the sky are known to be solid 
bodies. Though many of them are minute, and though 
they shine with many degrees of brilliancy (the 
larger one amazingly brilliant), they acquire their 
light only by friction against the elements of the 
atmosphere of the earth. We know they are solid be- 
cause many of the larger ones reach us, and are found 
to be thus. We also know their light goes out when 
they strike the earth. Hence their luminosity lasts 
only while passing through our atmosphere. 80 they 
are distinctively dead bodies — graveyards of the 
sky ; and, as the writer surmises, are particles from 
exploded or collided planets or other bodies, which 
once shown with their own primeval light, and thus 
were luminous, living worlds. Comets are self- 
luminous bodies — atoms, perhaps, thrown off from 
our sun or some other distant sun — and not vet 
graveyards. 

Dr. Winchell says, "The sun is cooling off. The 
clock of eternity ticks not seconds, but centuries.' 
Though at present it is a living, self-illuminated 
body, and as such in the far distant future though 

138 



NON-LUMINOUS BODIES OF THE SKY. 

it may appear to us, but in the lifetime of a nebula 
our sun is nearing the goal when it, also, will become 
a graveyard of the sky ! 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 




Rev. Frederick Stovenour. A.M.. D.I). 



THE BIBLE AND ASTRONOMY. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE BIBLE AND ASTRONOMY. 

By Rev. Frederick Stovenour. 

Religion and Science have not always been going- 
side by side as they are today. The difficulty has 
not been in either branch of study, but rather in a 
deficiency of knowledge of both branches of the sub- 
ject. The scientist belieyed the question of religion 
could not be studied bv him in his work, and the 
religious Bible teacher refused to allow science to be 
considered by him and his school. When both 
branches were thoroughly understood a new era 
dawned upon the religious and the scientific world. 

The combined forces of the two branches are to- 
day revealing important interests, and producing 
results of incalculable value to everv student in any 
or all departments of study. 

This changed condition is due to such men as J. P. 
Smith. Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Harris, Dr. Buchland, 
Professor Sedgwick, Professor YYnewell. and Hugh 
Miller. These men informed themselves thoroughly 
upon all these questions. Their works, although 
written several decades since, are standards of pro- 
found scholarship, in their departments. These men 
wrote not only the most masterly productions of 

141 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

their time, but in such a way as to popularize their 
method of interpretation among all readers of either 
continent. They compelled the ecclesiastical leaders 
of different schools, and the scientists of differenl 
departments of study, to confess the necessity of 
uniting these interests in one eternal union as their 
Author intended in their origin. 

The forces of these thinkers are not divided, but 
stand side by side solving the problems as con- 
fronted by the civilization of the age. 

The student todav who reads the ninth and the 
thirty-eighth chapters of Job, finds that they were 
at one time regarded as illiterate, and not at all in 
harmony with the interpretations as given by as- 
tronomers and chemists ; but todav no man for a 
moment doubts the wonderful statements of the 
Oriental seer. The Mazzaroth, Orion, and Areturus 
of Job, the astronomer of today must classify as did 
the man of Uz. These constellations are playing 
around the North Pole and ever pointing to the 
North Star, with the Pleiades pursuing their course 
in the heavens as in the creation morn. 

David, the Shepherd King, beyond a doubt fa- 
miliarized himself with the starry world: Psalms 8, 
3-4. "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of 

142 



THE BIBLE AND ASTRONOMY. 

Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou 
hast ordained ; what is man, that Thou art mindful 
of him? And the Son of Man, that Thou visitest 
him?" 

David knew that many of the stars were hundreds 
of times larger than this earth? If he realized that 
the sun, the orb of day, is one million three hun- 
dred and eighty-four thousand four hundred and 
sixty-two times larger than the earth, no wonder he 
was filled with reverence and awe ! 

Whether these men of the Bible had as complete 
knowledge of the Celestial world as we have in this 
age, is not a matter of inquiry here. 

No home can afford to be without some knowledge 
of the heavens of which we have such beautiful 
vision every clear and quiet morning and evening. 

There is an expression in the prophecy of Isaiah 
which is often repeated, but very little understood : 
"Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his 
hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and com- 
prehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and 
weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a 
balance?" Isaiah 40:12. The prophet in viewing 
the redemption of a ruined humanity, contrasts thai 
task with the one recorded in this verse. Albert 

I i:; 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

Barnes says: "Throughout this entire passage, there 
is not only the thought of the majesty and power of 
God, but there is also the idea that he has fitted or 
adjusted everything by His wisdom and power and 
adapted it to the condition of His creatures. ' Great 
men have been peculiarly impressed when viewing 
the heavens. It is said that the evening before the 
battle of the Pyramids, Napoleon's marshals were 
discussing and speaking lightly of God, when the 
General called them from the tent and said: "How 
can vou look at the heavens and doubt the existence 
of a God?" This question of the Man of Destiny is 
still traveling around the world, and touching the 
most profound student of time. Paul, the prophet 
of the Christian dispensation, as Moses was of the 
Hebrew dispensation, affirms that, "The things that 
are seen are temporal ; the things that are not seen 
are eternal," and that the things that appear were 
made of things that do not appear. Do not these 
statements evidently imply that sometime the tem- 
poral — the seen — will by God's hand go back into the 
unseen? It is intimated that the heavens and earth 
shall pass away: the elements melt with fervent heat. 
All these revolutions will ultimately introduce a 
state of things wherein will dwell righteousness for- 

144 



THE BIBLE AXD ASTRONOMY. 

ever. The man who follows God in this thought as 
revealed in the sun and stars will survive the wreck 
and revolution which will take place at God's own 
good time. 

Thomas Dick, the great Scotch thinker, believed 
that astronomy, philosophy, chemistry and mathe- 
matics will be taught in the Eternal City. 

There can be no loss incurred by an acquisition of 
substantial knowledge of these branches here, and 
the man who avails himself of these advantages will 
be better able to rightly interpret the Bible, and 
known Clod's will, than he who never cares for these 
sciences. 

I believe in the eternal verities of the Christian 
religion. Xo svstem of Church or State Government 
can maintain a living, growing, and useful place 
among men unless founded upon these verities. No 
system of science will avail the student in his in- 
terpretation of the phenomena of Nature, unless it is 
in harmony with these eternal verities of the Chris- 
tian system. 

All the religions which have passed into oblivion 
are those which were founded in error; having in 
themselves the very seeds of Death. 

Time eventually stamps death upon all that is 

14.-1 



LOOKING SKYWARD. 

mortal. What may seem vital, immortal, today, 
Time writes "Eternal Sleep" over its dominions to- 
morrow. 

All students, in fact all humanity, should look well 
to the course of the frail barque in which we are all 
sailing on that solemn sea, whose waves beat against 
the eternal shore. 

Believing, as I do. that my Father has placed 
his image upon the Sun, Moon and Stars, I want to 
acquaint myself with them and their ordinances, as 
I want to know His eternal will in the Bible, and thus 
be impressed with His majesty and power. 

Then I hope to stand redeemed by the Savior of 
Men at the great tribunal of posterity. 

Fred Stovenour, A.M., D.D., 

Portland, Ind. 

November 21, 1910. 



1<6 



Ode To Memory^ 

Oh, gift of God! that gives us light, 
And tells us how we once did live, 
And often gives us much delight, 

Sweet Memory. 

When sorrows come to cloud our lives, 
And hope defer d so sure prevails, 
The cheerless thought too soon revives 

Sad Memory. 

The troubles of each wintry day 
Relapse into our thoughts again, 
When all else has pass'd far astray 

Save Memory. 

'Tis from our childhood's happy days 
That thou dost bring much merriment, 
And tell us of our youthful ways, 

Dear Memory. 

'Twould cease — if thou wert not — our glee 
If we were banished 'way from thee; 
Ah! then life would a burden be 

Kind Memory. 

Oh! blessed boon, thou welcome friend 
That gives us but the past to know 
From us may nothing ever rend 

Loved Memory. 

The stars and things about may change. 
And life may take another course. 
But still does cling within our range 

True Memory. 

« 

Though time may calm away our grief 
And help us live more happily. 
There's one tiling that does give relief — 

'Tis Memory. 



MAR 14 1 Sf 3 



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